The Ribbon
by ForbiddenKHfan216
Summary: This tale begins with Kairi telling an urban legend involving her friend, Sora but the ribbon is not where the story ends. Rated T for implied violence. Series of one-shots with various characters taking their roles as narrators and playing different roles in the story.
1. Part One: The Ribbon

**Disclaimers: Kingdom Hearts is in no way mine and truly, the only thing mine about the whole thing is the actual story. 1,500 words written in roughly thirty minutes.  
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**I suppose I need an explanation. I love urban legends and quite possibly, this might be the beginning of a series of legends that I'll be making up... Please read and review!**

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**Part 1: The Ribbon**

My best friend is part of a strange legend on the island.

It hadn't always been that way, sadly. The story itself didn't start being told until we were six years old and our other friend, Riku, was seven. You see, that was the year that Sora disappeared. I guess I should start with that, since it's important to the urban legend. You always need a beginning, I suppose...

Back then, there was a man who fell in love with my best friend, Sora. Sora was only six years old but he knew better than to follow strangers home. But the man was insistent and tried to get Sora to go somewhere with him. The old man said that he was a beautiful little boy and wouldn't Sora follow him home so he could put him in his pocket and keep him safe. He swore to Sora up and down that he would keep him safe, as long as he came with him right now.

You see, the old man had been crying when he was saying all this to my friend. He had been crying and grabbing Sora around the shoulders to keep him from leaving. All the while, he kept stroking Sora's hair and trying to pull it out, like he was frightened for it. He kept calling him Terra. Even to this day, no one has any idea who Terra is. There's a theory that Terra was the man's son, since he also kept calling Sora 'son' and 'my child' while talking to him.

Getting scared, Sora ran away and found a police officer and told him everything that happened. He showed him the bruises that the stranger had given him and repeated what he said. Within a couple minutes, they picked up the man and took him to the station. Sora was asked to identify him.

You know how the line-up room has a sheet of plated glass, one that you're not supposed to be able to see through from the inside? It looks like a mirror from that side. It's either a one way glass or a two way glass, I can never remember the difference but I do know that the reflection doesn't let you look to the other side of the window. But somehow the man still knew Sora was there on the other side and he began talking to him. He said only said one thing before they put him in one of the cells, though:

"Who do you want your ribbon to go to, Terra? Remember, son, it has to go to someone special. It has to be someone you love. I wouldn't want it any other way. Remember, son, you have to give it to someone special! It is for someone special! For someone you love!"

He was crying the whole time he was talking, like he didn't want to keep saying it.

No one knows why Sora answered him, not even him. I remember him telling me that he had to answer the question and that he felt like he _needed_ to answer the question. That something bad would happen if he didn't say something. He didn't know why he said what he said but he had said the first name that had come to mind. Before anyone could stop him, Sora grabbed the microphone and said a name.

He said that he wanted his ribbon to go to Kairi. Me.

After he had said my name, the old man just smiled and nodded at Sora before becoming completely quiet. He didn't say anything after that, even went peacefully with the officers that took him away. The officer that had been with Sora asked him what the ribbon was supposed to mean. Sora didn't know. He had no idea what the ribbon was or why the old man was so insistent on giving one to me.

Four days later, Sora went missing while he was walking from school to go home for something he had forgotten. He had always been forgetful and this time he had forgotten a math book that we were using in class. The teacher cried and cried when she realized that by yelling at him and telling him to go get it, it was her fault that he was gone.

At the same time, the old man disappeared from inside of his cell. Everyone claimed that the old man had waited his time until no one suspected him and simply left to pick Sora up. There's more than a few rumors running around the island to what happened to him: he was dead, the old man was keeping him hostage in another part of the island, that the man's son Terra might have been replaced by him...

All I really know is that I haven't seen Sora since. It's been almost ten years since he's disappeared... but there's something that happened that makes me believe that Sora wasn't just taken away.

A day after Sora vanished, I found a red ribbon on my windowsill. It was one of those little thin ribbons that everyone uses for Christmas presents or for tying Valentine's Day chocolates up with. When I picked it up, I discovered it was covered in a dark red sticky liquid that smelled really strange. It stained my clothes when I brought it inside.

I don't know what made me wash it. Like Sora in the line up room, I felt compelled to take it inside and to bring it to the bathroom to clean. I used up three bars of soap getting the red stuff of it. But when I was done, I noticed something funny about the ribbon, something even stranger than the metallic smell of the thing. It was dark brown and was soft like velvet. There was a blue patch at the end of it that was almost leathery and that bit of it dangled off of the end like a lucky charm. It was sewn up like a triangle, like someone had cut up something bigger and folded it up into that tiny shape.

No one believed me when I said it was the exact color of Sora's hair or that the blue part was the same color as Sora's eyes.

But now there's a legend surrounding my friend and whenever I wear the ribbon, I can almost believe it. The legend goes that if you're walking alone on a road one morning, you'll see a little boy begin to follow you. There's two ways that the legend goes: if you don't stop and you keep going, the little boy will follow you the entire way until you reach your destination. When you turn back to look at him, he won't look at you but he'll grab your sleeve and say that you're a good runner. After this interaction, you'll never see him again but you will find a bright red handprint on your shirt, like he dipped his hand in paint before touching you.

They say that you should never throw away the shirt he ruined, as the little boy will protect you from dark spirits in the night. It's supposed to be good luck and some kids pay a lot of money to get one of these lucky shirts for some reason, though the charm isn't supposed to work if you give the shirt away.

If you stop and talk to him, the boy will frown at you and ask if you'd like a present. He'll always be reluctant and give you chances to say no. He'll keep asking if you're sure or if you want to reconsider. He'll give you reasons why you shouldn't take the present, like you shouldn't talk to strangers and what if your mom saw you talking to him. You'll get in trouble. If you insist, the little boy will start saying things to you, things that no one except you is supposed to know in order to discourage you. He'll tell you your worst nightmares in order to get you to stop. Everyone agrees that he wants to keep the present for himself. That it's something better than the lucky handprint. But if you keep agreeing and ask for it, he'll say that you have to give it to someone you love, someone special, and that he won't have it any other way. He'll ask you for a name and promise to deliver the present for you.

Within four days, you'll disappear and no one will ever see you again. But the day after you go away, the person you love will find a little boy standing under the window with a ribbon in his hand...


	2. Part Two: The Bearer

**To anyone reading this, be assured that I'll probably finish this batch of stories but any more updates will be either short or take forever to do. This is purely for my twisted enjoyment. Besides, this is a fun exercise. As before, please read and review. **

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**Part Two: The Bearer**

I can see you.

You don't know that I'm following you, but I can see you. I've been watching you for a little while. You smile a lot; maybe that's why I decided to follow you. You smile and you're happy and you're waiting for someone here. Maybe I'm lonely. Maybe that's why I'm following you.

Please don't turn around. Please don't turn around, I'm begging you. Let me see you to your house or to your school or to wherever; just don't turn around. I don't want to have to ask you those questions. I've never wanted to ask those questions. Don't want to have to do this...

I don't know why I have to ask those questions, all I know is that I want to go home. More importantly or maybe because I want to go home, I have to follow you. So please don't turn around. Please keep walking… Yes, keep going... keep going to go see your friends... It's okay... I want you to.

He'll get you if you don't. If you turn around, even for a second, if you see me, you'll get taken away.

You're a nice girl, Xion. I don't want to have to take you away. Maybe I'll be lucky this time. Maybe this time, even if you turn around, you won't want it. You don't look like the kind of girl who wants my present. … Wait… no… you're…!

"Are you lost?"

… No… I'm not… I'm not lost… I'm just… Um... Do you want a present?

"Huh? A present? What do you mean a present?"

Uh huh. A present. Like a gift. But you don't have to take it. It's not that great. In fact, how about you just walk away and we can pretend this never happened?

"Um… you're not making any sense. What present? Why are you giving it to me?"

It's not for you.

"Huh?"

I said, it's not for you. You have to give it to someone else.

"Hey… Did someone put you up to this? It was Axel, wasn't it! I just knew it! This is completely something he'd do!"

Yeah, okay, I'm from Axel. Axel sent me. Look, you don't want this present. It's not that great. Please just keep walking. Just keep walking and go see your friends. I'll leave now. I'm sorry for this. I'll just -Hey, let go!

"Oh no you don't, if Axel thinks he can scare me, then he's going to have another think coming! What's the present?"

I can't tell you. Please just keep walking. You'll get in trouble if you keep talking to me. Your mommy said not to talk to strangers, Xion. You're not supposed to talk to strangers!

"Hey... Did… Did Axel give you my name?"

No. He never told me your name, Xion Hikaru Minami, and he never told me about how you get bullied in school by girls you want to be friends with and that your mother abandoned you as a child. She used to hit you, Xion, remember? Do you remember that? She used to hit you and tell you'd never amount to everything. You were happier when your brother was alive; he used to hold your hand and take you to the park even though he wasn't supposed to but he loved you so much and wanted to make you happy. You and your brothers used to play all day in the park together, remember? But when your oldest brother died, your mother took it out on _you_. I know that. I can see it in the way you're looking at me with that scared look in your eyes. Do you want to know what else I know?

You have five circle-shaped scars on your back and on your shoulder from when she grabbed a car cigarette lighter and pushed it into your skin. You've never told anyone about that, not even your twin. She made you swear you would never tell or else she'd bury you so deep that no one would _ever_ find you.

"… How… how do you know that?"

I know more than just that. I know that on days where you're very sad, you're tempted to go to the police and tell them everything so that your mother will bury you. I also know your father never did anything to stop her, too. I know that Roxas never knew about it and never will because your mom and your dad love him more than you, they loved him enough to protect him from the death of your brother.

But they would never bother protecting _you_.

Everyone blames you for your brother's death because you're the one who distracted him and made him forget. It's your fault that your brother died; you're the reason why he had to go home and why he disappeared. Isn't that what you've always been scared of? Isn't that people hate you, Xion Hikaru Minami?

I'll give you one last chance to say no, Xion. Walk away, Xion. Just walk away.

"Who… who are you…? How do you know all those things? I've... never told anyone. How do you know about them? What do they have to do with Axel's present?"

… I'm nobody all that special… Fine. I'll keep going. You're scared of being kidnapped. Your big brother got kidnapped when he was a little boy and everyone says he's dead. But he's not dead, Xion, he's waiting for you. You see him in your nightmares when you're alone at night waiting for your mother to come home and when Roxas isn't there to protect you...

"S…stop it! Who told you that?!"

He's not dead, Xion, he's waiting for you… he wants you to go with him into the darkness and the rot and to have the little dead things crawling across your pretty little skin until you stop_ just like **him**_. Then you'll be waiting with him but you'll never wake up… But you'll be happy again because your brother will be rotting with you.

_YOU'LL **NEVER** BE ALONE AGAIN, ISN'T **THAT** WHAT YOU WANT?!_

"St-st-stop it! Go a-away, get away from me! Take your stupid present with you!"

I like the smile on your face a lot more than I like when you cry, Xion. I'm sorry we had to meet like this. At least you'll be safe now. Bye bye.

"W-wait a second… do… do I know you? Your face... I know that face...!"

Good bye, Xion, I'm sorry that I made you cry. I don't like when little girls cry. It makes me sad… maybe I knew a little girl…

".. Who… who are you?!"

Maybe I'll see you again… maybe this time, you won't see me.

Next time I'll be sure that you don't see me, sister.


	3. Part Three: Old Friends

**Of course Riku's chapter ends up being emo... dammit...**

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**Part 3: Old Friends**

"Did you hear?! He struck again! Someone totally saw him!"

"No way, that little boy?"

"Uh huh, the one from the story… they said he followed this couple all the way down Main Street until they reached their house!"

"No way, that's totally scary!"

I adjust my glasses on my nose and look up at the clock, wondering when this class would be over. Geez, no matter what they do, they're always so damn annoying. I close my eyes. No matter what I do, they'll be annoying. If I look over at them and glare at them and tell them to shut up, then they're going to squeal that Riku, top class Riku, is looking at them.

What a pain in the ass.

I should have graduated a year ago… flunking a grade due to anger fucking sucks...

I lean back in my chair and think hard about my childhood. All in all, I had a pretty normal one except for one little thing. Well, maybe more like one _big_ thing.

My friend got kidnapped when we were kids. No one's ever seen him again so now, ten years later, everyone assumes he'd been killed long ago. Ever since then, people have spread this crazy legend about his ghost appearing to people and either granting them luck… or giving them a mysterious gift that sounded like he dragged them to the depths of hell.

Like Sora would ever do that. And no one seems to remember he was human once.

I grimace at the old memories surging up. A little boy with a big goofy grin and a tendency to bust into tears whenever things didn't go his way is what they're squealing about. He was a normal little boy who liked to laugh. He was always trailing after me then, following me around like a little shadow because he wanted to know what it was like being in '_real_' school and to have '_real_' friends instead of just neighbors. He was always so excited to be a big kid. He was so damn normal that it was a real shock to the community when he disappeared.

It's been ten years since then. I'm seventeen, not seven. Being in high school means I don't have very many regrets, except not graduating a year ago and... those memories. I never told Sora that he was my best friend. … I never had the chance to let him know that we weren't just neighbors, but best friends for life.

Even now, ten years later, I haven't forgotten him even though none of my other friends remember him.

Even now, I still mourn my best friend. I can't stand those stupid fucking stories. No one seems to remember that he was human once.

"Will you stupid fucking girls shut the hell _**up**_?!" I hear myself scream as I stand up and nearly flip my desk over. They freeze in mid-sentence and gape at me, startled by how I suddenly spoke. A crunching noise rings in my ears as my nails dig hard into the wooden desk. "Shut up with your stupid ghost stories! _You're giving me a fucking headache_!" I repeat before glancing up at the teacher.

He is completely still, his hand frozen on the board with the chalk. Fucking useless bastard! Can't he stop their damn yapping?

Even so, I feel the anger dying away when my eyes drop to a little girl sitting in the desk in front of him. I haven't spoken to her in like, five years but her very presence makes me feel ashamed. One thing to do now, I guess, before she looks up at me with those sorry violet-blue eyes. I hate them but I like them at the same time. They remind me… they've always reminded me…

"I'm sorry," I respond dully before moving away from my desk and toward the door. For a split second, the teacher moves toward me, to stop me probably. "Headache. Going to the infirmary." I inform him before shutting the door in his face.

That felt good. A lot better than it should have.

But even as I walk away, I can still feel Kairi's eyes following behind me like a little shadow. I can feel her filling my head with memories again.

'_Riku, come on, Riku, go with me!'_

'_No way, Sora, I'm not going with you just to get a stupid book that you should have already brought.'_

'_But… Kairi said no!'_

'_You're a big kid; you can go alone!'_

In the end… Sora… wasn't I the one who was left alone?

Stopping in the middle of the hall, I turn my head over my shoulder. For... for a split second... I rub my eyes hard, wondering if I was beginning to have a migraine. Just now... when I turned the corner... did I see a little boy behind me? For just a second, I think I saw someone walking behind me.

I scoff under my breath and keep walking.

Stupid ghost stories.


	4. Part Four: Brotherly

**Part 4: Brotherly**

My big brother was taken away by the boogeyman and I have proof.

He's buried underneath a stone basement in a hole where a bunch of other little kids are. His rotting bones and a rusted necklace are all that's left of him. He never took it off, so of course it's with him and it's rusting away because he's been buried. Because he's rotting. That's what everyone else says, anyway, and that's what I always imagined when I was younger.

You see, when I was younger I tried to scare myself with stories of Sora. It's pretty sick but that's how I dealt with his being gone. My parents wouldn't tell me how he died or anything, so I listened to the stories that everyone else told instead. I also tried to imagine his white white bones and his rusty red necklace and the little loafers with their messy laces tied into a bow. I tried to imagine the grave he shared with a bunch of other little kids that everyone whispered about in quiet, frightened breaths on the playground. But Sora never scared me. I might be his younger brother, but Sora never scared me the way he scares our sister.

Maybe it's because I know he didn't die. Everyone else thinks Sora's dead, even my twin sister Xion. But I know he's not dead. I can feel it.

Briefly getting off of the subject... My parents are very protective over me. I'm not allowed to walk alone at night, I have to have my cell phone charged and ready to call them at any minute of the day, and I always have to have at least one friend with me. My sister Xion doesn't have any of these protections but she's usually the one with me because she's scared of running into Sora.

I'm not and because of that, I don't always wait with my friends. After all, my brother's not scary, no matter how much people try to make him into a ghost. He's just my brother.

You see, there's an old oak tree outside of my old elementary school that Sora used to sleep under. People say that sometimes, you can see a little shape, the size of a six year old boy, underneath the branches and a child's voice will call out to you and ask your name. Or if he knows you, he'll walk up behind you and start following you. If you turn around, he'll disappear without a trace or will try to hurt you or drag you down into the earth with him. It all depends on who's telling the story.

It's all BS. He's not under there. I would know; he would have called out to me first.

Sometimes I go out to the tree and I look for him. You see, I'm a year younger than he is and so is my sister. So when we were in kindergarten and Sora was in first grade, the tree was our meeting spot. _'If anything bad happens, wait for me under the tree and I'll go take care of it for you! I'm your big brother and I love you!'_

Those were his directions but we never had to use them when he was still here.

I forget how many times I've sat under the tree and waited for Sora. Sometimes I cry because Sora's not here but I always hide it. No one really minds me there anymore, since I don't do anything. I don't talk to the little kids or try to hurt them or really even do _anything_ except wait for my friends or eat a snack. I'm such a usual sight that even the teachers just go out and sit with me sometimes. They always talk to me and wait with me until it's time to go back home with Xion and Axel.

Maybe they know I'm waiting for my brother. I know it's stupid but there's a little part of me that thinks he might still come back. That the tree would be the first place he'd go to find me.

… Maybe I shouldn't be saying this... but... one time, I stayed under the tree until it turned dark. It wasn't my fault; I actually fell asleep. Anyway, long story short I woke up and realized that it was almost midnight and that my parents were probably looking for me. They'd be worried about me so I got up and started looking for my book-bag. I always lose the damn thing and this time, I couldn't find it.

After a couple minutes of not finding the thing, I said screw it and just started walking home. It was too dark, too annoying, and too late to stay any longer. There's a long road that leads to my house from the elementary school, it's the only road in fact. It takes about fifteen minutes to get to anywhere in the island but that night it seemed to take forever.

You know how when you're alone, everything seems to just jump out at you? Like, shadows seem to dance on the walls ahead of you, unlit by even the strongest street lamp. You hear noises that aren't there or that are so... _distorted_ that they sound fake? Everything just seems to get your heartbeat racing, jolting every single bit of your body until you realize, 'oh, that was the neighbor's cat meowing' or something? That's how I felt that night. _Everything_ seemed to be moving, pushing in at me and keeping me in a tight path around the lamps… I kept seeing shadows, these huge shadows that draped across all of the buildings that I passed every day of my life.

I couldn't stop shaking. I was so scared… but I was almost home, so I thought I could deal with it. I mean, they were only shadows, right?

Just as I turned the corner to the supermarket, I felt something grab my hand and hold on tight. It felt warm and it squeezed my fingers hard. At the touch, I'm not afraid to admit that I freaked out. After all, I was completely alone. I mean, _completely_ alone. Everyone else was in bed, the entire island has an almost mandatory curfew for everyone to be at home at midnight… So _what the hell was holding my hand_?!

When I realized what it was, I stayed completely still for about a minute before running away as fast as I possibly could.

The reason why I was running? It felt like something that nearly every person has experienced at some point in time… it was the touch of a human hand in mine.

I ran and I ran, all the way down the street, all the way past the closed and dark shops, but I still heard footsteps behind me. They were fast, just as fast as I was, and I felt someone right behind me, right on my heels as I ran. The pit-pat-pitter of the footsteps dogged my step even as I turned the corner and jumped into a neighbor's yard. I mean, I knew he wouldn't get mad or anything and he was probably asleep anyway, so I just ran through his garden, grabbed his fence and then threw myself into my yard.

When I managed to actually get into my house and slam the back door closed, I took no chances and locked it behind me. I remember that I dropped to my knees and started to cry because I was so scared. The idea of thinking that you're alone and discovering that you're _not_… that there's someone _with_ you and you don't know who they are or what they want… the very thought scared the hell out of me. It sent my pulse skyrocketing and I couldn't breathe and... and all I could do was just sit down there in the threshold and cry.

I feel so fucking stupid about it now. I mean, I'm supposed to be a damn adult now. I'm almost eighteen for the love of Pete. And here I was, crying like a little kid that had spotted a monster? Man, I'm lame. To make it all worse, I was too scared to even look outside. Too scared to even check what had grabbed me. I'm so lame. Such a chickenshit! I kept scolding myself and telling myself that I had to look outside, that there was nothing there and that I was being a baby.

But I still wouldn't look outside… I was too scared. Instead, I looked down at my hand, the one that had been grabbed, and saw something else.

Right there in my palm was a bright red splotch of a funny smelling liquid.

That's when I heard a quiet voice say something outside of my door just as I heard little footsteps walk down the porch stairs and then into the night. It was very quiet but I could still hear it since I was pressed up right by the door. It was a little boy's voice and he spoke in a sad voice, like he wasn't sure about what he was saying.

It was just a sentence, spoken in passing but what he said made my blood freeze.

You see, the moment that I heard that his feet left the porch, I heard a sickeningly loud noise following right after him. It scared the living daylights out of me for one reason. It was the sound of something ripping apart but… it wasn't the normal kind of ripping, not like _paper_ ripping. It sounded… wet… sinewy… _alive_.

I can't stop thinking about what he said. It keeps repeating in my head… but I haven't told anyone about it. I mean, who would believe me? Who would believe me if I ever said it out loud?

You see… he said one sentence. The little boy said only one thing and that one thing made me sure it was Sora. It was something only he'd say and the way he said it… it meant that he had been following me that night. Protecting me like he'd always had.

"I'm your big brother… and I love you… I'll take care of it, Roxas…"

In the morning I found my book-bag leaning up against the door.


	5. Part Five: Challenge

**Part Five: Challenge**

Today felt strange.

I looked out the window, trying to figure out what feels so odd. Everything was normal, or as normal as it could be in almost summer. This was the time of the year where everyone started going a little crazy and started doing bizarre things. I closed my eyes.

No, that wasn't why I didn't like summer. The real reason… was because everyone started to tell scary stories in summer.

"Ehhh, Kairi, are you listening?" Selphie demanded from next to me and then I felt a blunt circle shoving hard against my cheek. OW! I yawned and glared at the younger girl, though all she did is laugh. Little brat… that really hurt…

"Yeah, I'm listening," I muttered before leaning forward and giving her my utmost attention. She grinned cheekily, pulled out a notebook from her book-bag, and flipped it open to a new page. "Good, cause I have a new one for you involving the little spirit!" Selphie cheered.

I groaned. Out of everyone in the class, Selphie was the one that was the most obsessed over ghost stories. She collected them in that stupid notebook and for some reason, she liked telling them to me. I've told her to stop but she never listened. Because of that, I knew them all down to the very last detail. I watched her as she tapped the page and began reading a column of her handwritten notes out loud.

"_He waits in the darkness, letting sad victims hide, _

_The boy waits in the shadows with spirits to guide, _

_This is the ghost that awaits with the people who've died, _

_He takes them to a new place, a new side."_

A poem? That was rare… most people didn't tell Sora's story in rhyme like that… it was almost refreshing to hear another version like that. Sora as a guide for dead spirits... it almost made him sound like a good ghost. Usually he became one of the monsters that brought children to hell. The poem was much more like him! I spun my pencil around my fingers as Selphie put the book down and looked over at me for approval. I couldn't really think of anything else to do but I gave her a thumbs up.

She immediately blushed and began moving that much faster. Oh great, she was excited. "Thanks, Kairi! I found it on one of the new chatrooms for the little spirit. A lot of people are talking about him on the web cause he's being really active this year; lots of people have seen him! I hope I get to see him, too!" Selphie preened and she sighed in happiness, her eyes looking off into the distance as she daydreamed.

I swear that she was the only one in the entire class that thought it was would be fantastic to see a ghost, especially the little spirit that everyone was so terrified of.

I ran my finger down my wrist, playing with the dark brown ribbon I tied there. I wore it almost all the time now, because of all of the stories about him. It was strange… but for some reason… Sora was on my mind almost all the time now, too. I turned my wrist to look at the small triangle at the end of it. Like he was haunting me too…

"Don't you two get tired of that?"

I looked up just in time to see Riku steal one of the chairs from another desk, spin it, and then sit down in front of me. A smile slowly crossed my lips as he stared at Selphie, disapproval already firmly in place on his dark expression. Selphie immediately turned red and started babbling hysterically to me, shocked that Riku, the top-tier Riku, was sitting with us while we waited for class to start.

I hadn't talked to him in years, but somehow it felt like he had never stopped being my friend. As he gave me a smile, it was clear that he hadn't stopped thinking of me like that, too. "Tired of what?" I asked him as I spun my ribbon around my arm. His eyes dropped down to it and his mouth set in a hard line.

"Those stupid ghost stories," Riku declared before reaching out and grabbing the end of it. "Don't you get sick of them?" He asked as his fingers found the leather charm at the end of it and toyed with it, turning it this way and that way as he looked it over.

But just like when he was little, there was a different question in his eyes. Riku could never truly express his emotions… a lot of the time, Sora said it was because of all the pressure put on him because he was so smart and strong. Everyone saw what they wanted to see in Riku and no one saw the real him… so he never learned how to ask what he really wanted to know.

But Sora and I always knew how to figure it out; Riku always had the same expression in his eyes when he asked questions. This time… I could guess what he was thinking almost to the letter. He had been the one that had been hurt the worst by our friend's disappearance and never really got over it. In fact, the reason why we stopped being friends was because of his disappearance. Because no one seemed to remember Sora had been a little boy once, not a warped legend.

It was pretty clear what his real question was to ask if I remembered that he had been our friend.

I put my hand over Riku's and nodded. "They're not real," I confided in him and I watched as the dark look in his eyes slowly got a bit brighter. He had needed someone else to say it and I was more than happy to let him know I was on his side. "They're just dumb stories to explain why kids disappear here."

He nodded. "There are a lot of strong tides, caves, and stuff where kids can get lost," Riku explained in irritation. I chuckled; it sounded like he had thought hard about it. "That's where those kids went, not to hell… or wherever people think that he's taking them. There's lots of kids who went missing that came back." He added when Selphe glared at him.

The girl huffed and crossed her arms in anger. Uh oh, here we go… "The little spirit _**is**_ real!" Selphie declared as she slapped down her notebook in emphasis. "If he wasn't, then where are all the stories coming from?"

I watched as Riku shook his head. "Tragedy boosts creativity," He sighed softly. After a moment, he turned to look at me. "Everyone wants to believe that it's something horrible instead of something normal. They make monsters out of ordinary events in order to let them feel better about something they couldn't control..."

A pain twisted in my heart as Riku shook his head again. He was right; it was easier to blame something you couldn't control… over admitting you were wrong or that you hadn't had done enough to stop something.

We had been kids then. My hand tightened over Riku's and he unconsciously turned his around to cup mine. We had been kids then… but we hadn't been able to save Sora. He had been human once, but all the stories ended up demonizing him for being gone…

As Riku stood up, I noticed an interesting smile on his face. "Well, if that's what you feel about it, Selphie…" He said in a cold voice, staring down at Selphie in distaste. He flipped his hair back and snatched up her ghost stories notebook. "Then let's expose the truth once and for all." He waggled the notebook in front of her; as she tried to grab it, he yanked it back up with a laugh.

Oh no... From the mischievous grin he had, I already knew what Riku was thinking. He had never been satisfied with just taking someone's word for it as a kid, he always had to actually do the experiment himself...! He couldn't be thinking of trying the legend out himself, could he?

"Let's go see if we can catch a ghost!"


	6. Part Six: Flashburn

**Part Six: Flashburn**

No, please, stop…!

Just… just a dream… I'm okay… I put my hands behind my head as I slowly began to wake up. It was only a dream.

Just… another dream….

There was a bad taste in my mouth, but rubbing it didn't seem to help at all. In fact, I could taste it even more if I tried it. I spat out the nightmare but the metallic taste didn't want to go away. I rub my mouth again and again but the taste didn't go away.

I have to remember it was just a dream… just a dream… he wouldn't do that. The flashburn of the nightmare coursed through my head, filling it with shadows as I looked up at the ceiling of my home. It was just a dream.

I rub my mouth again.

I just have to remember that he wouldn't hurt me; I was his only friend. He would never… hurt me… He just brought me here… but he would never hurt me... right? I was his... friend... wasn't I?

I rub my mouth and look up at the rocks above my head.

Flashburn. That wasn't a word. I knew it wasn't a word. But it felt like one, because it described the burning feeling in my head and my face and my chest from running in the nightmare. It hadn't been real… but I still felt the running.

I looked down at my arm and saw the deep black bruises forming where he had thrown me in the dream. But it wasn't real. It was never real. It was just something that he did to mess with my head just a little bit more. Just one more trick to prove that I was still alive and still here with him. That I had work to do. But it wasn't real, none of it ever really happened.

But the wounds were real enough, because he didn't know how to play right.

I rub my mouth and close my eyes.

"Just… a dream…" I promised myself... and I hoped with everything I had that I was telling the truth.


	7. Part Seven: Respect

**Part Seven: Respect**

That son of a bitch Riku was going to pay for this.

Axel grabbed me around the neck, stopping me from getting up from my chair and going after the kid that had told me the rumor. He nodded toward my classmate, giving him permission to keep on walking. Shuyin just bowed his head to me, maybe he was apologizing, before just walking off and taking his seat in the front of the class.

"That son of a bitch!" I snarled under my breath. How could Riku do this? He had been my brother's best friend! His only friend, even! Axel looked down at me as I spat out a few more choice curses before he pushed me down into my chair and stood up, putting his entire weight onto his palms.

That son of a-!

"Roxas, calm down," The upperclassman said soothingly, patting my shoulders with his fingertips. But he still didn't let go, specifically because he didn't trust me. Bastard. He shook his head at me; Axel had the uncanny ability to read my mind sometimes. "I'm sure there's an explanation."

I shook off his hands. "There better be, or else." I snapped back before standing up. At seeing my enraged face, Axel just rolled his eyes up to the ceiling for a moment like he was praying or something before standing up too.

"I'm with you," My friend said with a shrug. I stared at him; he had never met my brother, we'd become friends long after he disappeared. Axel grinned.

"Well, if he's your bro, then he musta been something special for you to keep on loving him for this long," He said before clapping his hand back onto my shoulder.

I nodded before focusing on the task at hand. Riku, one of the toughest guys in school as well as one of the most 'good-looking.' I could end up making a lot of enemies today. A flash of memory burns through my head as I walk toward the door.

It's only a brief image, but enough to make me want to pound that good-looking smirk off of the emo brat's face.

Sora's big smile as he introduced me to his 'bestest friend in the whole 'wild' world' and the way that he very gently put my hand into Riku's so we could shake hands.

"Dammit, Riku! I'm going to fucking kill you!"


	8. Part Eight: Unknown Character

**The scary part of this whole thing is that I woke up and immediately started writing it down. If I had a nightmare or something, I can't remember it. Maybe I should be glad for that.**

**Oh yeah, guys? This is horror. This chapter is where the horror stuff starts. Don't say I didn't warn you...! **

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**Part Eight: Unknown Character**

I'm scared that I've lost my mind.

I've been here too long, I've been chased so long, and now I can't remember a thing. Not my name, not my friends, not my family. It's all... gone. I got warned when I first came here that it would happen. But I didn't listen. I didn't think it was real, all I could think about was the pain from being put here and... the idea that he had done this to me. Maybe I should have listened to the boy, maybe I should have stayed with the boy like he asked… NO! He lied to me, he lied and pretended to want to help me when he's the one who stuck me in this hellhole! HE LIED!

No… he's just as much of a victim as I am… he's trapped here too. If I had a choice, if I had been given the choice… I would have done the same thing, wouldn't I? I would have worked for that thing, too…

LIAR! You're a LIAR!

No… please… make it stop…

It won't stop, it won't stop… but you know how to make it stop, don't you…?

W-what? You know what to do, you know how to end it… because you've ended it for the others… the reason why you're ravingandunabletospeakand_dying_ofthemadnessyouhave!

No, focus, you have to-to focus! Ignore it! I need to remember, I need to remember… what do I remember…? I remember… Marluxia… yes… Marluxia… my… friend. No, not your friend, he wasn't your friend, he used you to get what he wanted… no, he was my friend. He was my friend! Why isn't he here with you then? If he was such a good friend, then why isn't he here instead of you?

I… I made a deal… I didn't think it was real… I didn't think the boy would collect… dammit! He gets on my nerves! Why does he get to be so righteous and good when he's stuck in the same hell I am! He gets to be good when he's covered in darkness, when he's the one who did this all! He's why I'm here! This isn't _my **fault**_!

I… I don't want to be here anymore. I want to take back the deal. I have to find the boy. I have to find the boy and beg him to take me back. … No… I can't. I remember now. He said that this was permanent. He said… the only way back… is for me to try to go through before him. Yeah, that's what I have to do… I have to… go back… I have to get through first… I'm... starting to forget my name... why can't I remember my name...?

He tried to protect me… He… told me that if I truly wanted to, I could stay with him and he'd try to give me a chance to go back first… He said… He said… "Larxene, I'll help you, but I can only do that if you let me…" why didn't I… let him…Yeah... my name's... Larxene... isn't it? ... LIAR! LIAR LIARLIARLIAR_LIAR_! WAKE UP! SOMEONE PLEASE WAKE ME UP! MARLUXIA! VEXEN, PLEASE, ANYONE! _**HELP ME**_!

Please…! SOMEBODY _get me __**out**_…!


	9. Part Nine: An Old Not-Friend

**Part Nine: An Old Not-Friend**

The door slammed open, revealing a younger kid with bright gold blond hair and a savage expression on his face and an older one with a shock of red hair and tattoos on his face.

I blinked at the intruder, wondering why he would go into the music room at lunchtime when everyone knew that the seniors and juniors had full rights to it. Sure, I was the only one who actually _used_ the music room at this time but everyone still knew it was ours.

Taking a better look, I decided the older kid could probably be a senior, if not one of the university students that came every day to help out the stupider kids. He was a lot older looking than the blond.

"Riku, you little shit." The blond suddenly snapped and the vicious way that he said it made me immediately put down my half-eaten sandwich. I sighed. This was going to be trouble.

His friend grabbed the boy by the arm but he just shook it off and walked straight toward me. I took a moment to look down at my sandwich and wonder if I could possibly save it before he tried anything. It wasn't worth it, but hey, I'm always willing to fight…

The kid marched up and grabbed me by the scruff of my shirt, yanking my body up so that my head was now cocked back and I was looking him in the face. His blue eyes glared down at me as he spat out his next words. "Don't you have any respect for the dead, you asswipe?"

I blinked and suddenly recognized him.

"Roxas? Roxas _Minami_?" I asked curiously, surprised to see Sora's little brother standing in front of me. Somehow the idea that he was only two years younger than I am and would be a sophomore in the same school as me never really registered in my mind. But wow, he'd gotten really big! He was almost as tall as I was!

I guess I always saw him as the little tagalong that followed Sora and I to the elementary school, trying to see what a 'big-kids' school looked like before we sent him back. I never really pictured him getting older.

"You've grown up," I told him in amusement before he pulled his hand back, curled it into a tight first, and tried to punch me in the face. The minute that his hand gets anywhere close to me, I reached up and caught it, gripping it tightly enough that we both heard the bones creak inside of his skin. He stared at me in horror, suddenly freaked out that I had caught him so easily. I smiled at him. "Looks like you still don't like me," I commented with a shrug before shoving him forward and sending him sprawling into his friend.

The redhead immediately caught the kid and wrapped his arms around him to keep him from charging forward and trying to kill me.

As if he could to be honest. I've fought enough guys to know how to hold my own in a brawl.

"Hey, Roxas, that's enough." He informed the struggling kid in his arms before Roxas simply stopped moving and just glared viciously at me. I blinked at him for a moment before reaching down and grabbing my sandwich again.

I took a lazy bite as the older kid grabbed a chair, sat down in it, and pulled Roxas into his lap. O… kay… I never figured… that Sora's brother would play for the other team. That's a surprise. "Alright," he said as Roxas leaned back into him and cursed viciously under his breath. "We wanna know what the hell you think you're doing by summoning this one's brother," The redhead demanded as he pointed a thumb at the scowling blond.

Staring at them for about five seconds, his words suddenly registered in my head and made me laugh. They stared at me before giving each other a funny look. But c'mon! Summoning? Since when am I a summoner? Am I supposed to be some sort of magician or something? Anyway, even if I was, which I'm not because that doesn't exist, how could I summon my best friend?

I shook my head and coughed, hiding the last of the giggles before straightening up on the piano bench I was sitting on. "All I'm doing is trying out the legend and proving that Sora's not a ghost," I informed him in a much calmer voice. "I'm sick of people calling him that and those stupid stories." The guy nodded calmly and looked over at Roxas.

"See, there you go," He said with a chuckle. "Perfectly reasonable explanation. You said yourself that you wanted to try it to see if you could see-"

"I want in," Roxas interrupted immediately. I stared at him for a moment before raising an eyebrow. His response was to fold his arms across his chest and glare back. "He's my brother, I want to see him. … I want to at least _try_." He added and looked away.

For a split second, I saw the little boy that ran through the entire island, begging for his brother to come back from the dead to be with him. The same little boy that sobbed throughout a funeral with an empty casket, the same one that refused to put a white rose for his brother into that empty box because he was screaming that Sora wasn't dead the whole time. I saw the little boy that would clutch at Sora's hand when walking across the road with him; I remember how he wouldn't cross the road alone after Sora's disappearance, because he was waiting for Sora to take him to school like he promised.

… I thought… for the first time in a very long time… that Roxas might have been the one that missed Sora the most. That… like me… he never really got over losing his brother. But… that it was worse for him, because he didn't understand why Sora was gone. He just knew that his best friend wasn't going to come back.

… I knew what had happened. I …. Had that comfort, I guess. I was older and I could understand what happened. The idea comforted me. But Roxas didn't have that. He just knew his brother was gone and he didn't know why. He... never had that comfort.

I picked up my unopened juice can and tossed it over to him.

"Do what you want, Roxie," I said with a soft sigh. Roxas snatched the can out of the air and popped it open, reminding me of when we were kids and he used to pull the same trick whenever Sora threw him a juice box. Roxas began drinking, scowling as he tasted the sweet juice and probably from the old nickname too. He never liked sweets, but he always drank the juices that Sora gave him.

He also hated it with a passion whenever his brother called him Roxie.

Oh, yeah, introductions. "By the way, my name's Riku," I told the redhead. He grinned and nodded. "I figured, since Roxas was rambling about beating your ass up," He said with a laugh before holding his hand out to me. I get up and take it, shaking it as he loosened his grip on his friend.

"Name's Axel, got it memorized? So when are we doing this?" He asked curiously.

Axel. Hm. Nice name. I shrugged and sat down on the floor next to them, deciding to ignore my lunch for a little while longer. "Uh, tomorrow at eleven on Main Street," I said after a moment. When they look down at me, I shrug. "We don't have school, so we can stay up late. Nothing in the rumor says anything about nighttime, but it'll be better since no one will bother us then. And Main Street's the longest street, too."

Axel thought about it for a moment before looking over at Roxas with a curious look. The boy grinned, obviously excited to (probably and definitely not) get the chance to talk to his brother again. When he saw me smiling, he immediately scowled and nodded calmly.

"That's fine, I'm not doing anything tomorrow anyway," Roxas said haughtily before handing me the can of juice back. Like I wanted it after you've been putting your lips all over it, idiot. But I took it anyway and tilted my head back, trickling the juice into my mouth and drinking it.

Tomorrow it was. All we needed to do was get our hands on some equipment. I glanced over at the two and smiled when Roxas looked over at me. And I knew exactly where to go get it.

Hopefully, Roxas could help sneak the stuff out of my uncle's store.


	10. Part Ten: Radio Caller

**I think I had a little too much fun with this chapter, as it follows a radio broadcast. According to rules, "Chat/script format and keyboard dialogue based entries" are not allowed. This is a _radio broadcast, not a chat format, a script, or a keyboard dialogue based entry_. HA! LOOPHOLE! **

**Anyway, as always, please read and review. Thank you kindly. **

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**Part Ten: Radio Caller**

Hey guys, this is theSelphgirls on Destnews Radio, this is GhostWatch coming to you live from… well, my room I guess. Anyway, that's not important. What is important is that I've got some exciting news for you! Me and my friends are going to be doing a very important experiment tomorrow in order to prove or disprove the existence of the Little Spirit!

For those of you guys that don't know, the Little Spirit is a friendly little ghost that likes to walk behind people and follow them. The ghost is supposed to be the spirit of a boy named Sora Minami, who disappeared in a series of weird events and hasn't been seen since. He was taken by a childnapper and is supposed to be very lonely, hence why he follows people! Poor little guy!

But there's another part to the story that is even more interesting. If someone manages to catch him following them when they reach their location, he gives you a good luck charm in the form of a red hand print! They say that those hand prints can never be washed out but if you have one of those shirts, you'll get good luck for the rest of your life! Isn't that great?

He also has a second, more... _mysterious_ gift that no one's ever been able to legitly confirm. It's supposed to be a ribbon that gives even better luck, but you have to force him to give it to someone you love. He's a bit of a romantic, don't you think? Anyway, a few of my friends and I will be trying the legend out tomorrow night!

Alright, I'll take your comments now. Hello, caller one, you're on the air.

"Yeah, this is Wakka here… Are you _**outta your mind**_?! This some kinda joke or somethin'?!"

No, Wakka, I'm being serious! Riku, me, and Kairi are all going to be walking from the elementary school to the ghost's house to test out the legend! It's totally safe, we have lots of people doing it with us!

"Alright, Selph, if you're sure about this… Can I come, too?"

No, we've got enough people already. I think Roxas, Xion, and some college student are all going to go with us. That's already six people. Anyone else listening, please don't go after us and try to stop the experiment, all details will be enclosed later on the Destnews website. Oh, Wakka, do you have any last comments?

"Promise me you'll be safe, a'ight? I ain't wanting to go save you from a ghost!"

I assure you, Wakka, I'll be fine. Alright, next caller, who is this please?

"Hey, Selph, this is Tidus. Since Wakka already read you the riot act, I might as well ask how you're even going to do this experiment. … So, what exactly are you guys going to do?"

Well, Tidus, I'm glad you asked! Since I'm a member of the Destnews Radio team, I asked them for permission to record what happens tomorrow and put it on the air! Isn't that exciting?!

"Uh… that's not what I asked. I asked how you guys are doing to do the experiment."

'_**No, I don't want to-!'**_

Uh… hello? Is someone there? You're on the air, Tidus, are you still there?

"… Selphie, I'm still here. What the hell was that?"

Isn't it coming from your end?

"Uh, _no_…"

Uh… Tidus, I'm going to ask you to call back in a little bit. I think we might be having technical difficulties with… the recorder or something. In the meantime, I'll explain what's going to happen. That good with you?

"Yeah, sure… but that… that was a girl's voice, wasn't it? Is someone there with you, Selph?"

No… I'm all alone in my room. My mom's in the other room though, maybe she has the TV on? Alright, sorry to cut you off, Tidus, but here are the rules for the experiment in case anyone else wanted to know.

We'll be walking half the length of Main Street on our own for exactly seven minutes, as this was the recorded time it took Riku to walk the distance between Destiny Elementary and Roxas' house, which is where the Little Spirit was going to when he disappeared. Riku's a pretty fast walker, since he's on the track team, but we made him slow down for this experiment! This is our control time; the subjects are probably going to run if they see the Little Spirit!

Anyway, we'll each have exactly one camera and one audio recorder wire on us to narrate our walk. The equipment was generously donated for our use by the Takamura store, which specializes in cameras. Thank you, guys! We'll try not to break them!

Ahem. So, anyway, we'll have a total of six participants for the –

'_**Don't…!' **_

… H… hello? Did… did I push the call button or something? ... I think we're picking up another radio signal from somewhere, who is this?

Oh, there actually _is_ a caller! Alright, you're on the air, what's your name?

"… um… this is… Xion. …. I'm… I'm going to be in the experiment t-too."

Oh hey there! What's up?

"Just wanted to let you… and… um… your… listeners know that the test might be recorded live. Maybe. I'm not sure how this equipment works."

Wow, really?! That's great! I had no idea Riku's cameras could do that!

"… R…. Riku said that he was going to ask his uncle if he could borrow some... _special_ cameras to do that. If not, he... he said he'd upload the videos after each person takes their walk onto his website right after they finish."

You heard her, folks! The videos are going to be uploaded on Riku's website before they're put on the air, so if you've got a computer, be sure and check them out by midnight tomorrow night! Anything else you want to tell our listeners, Xion?

"…. Um… please… support the experiment, it's… it's for a good… cause?"

And with that, Xion, you're going to be off the air! Try not to be so shy next time, alright?

'_**Stop… it…!'**_

Xion? You still there? I thought I hit the call-off button… yeah, I did, there's no light… man, this equipment is going nuts tonight! It keeps picking up another signal! I hope it doesn't do anything so freaky tomorrow!

Anyway, there's exactly one more rule for the experiment, and if you know the story of the Little Spirit, it's a biggie. If for whatever reason one of the subjects thinks they hear someone behind them - and it won't be one of the others, since Riku'll be calling each of us and telling us when we can start - they have to turn around and greet them. This starts up the legend and hopefully, one of us will get to talk to the Little Spirit! I'm so excited! I think one of the guys said that if we wanted to, we could try to accept the gift, but Riku said that wasn't necessary, as long as we just get a good shot of the ghost, we're golden!

Alright, with that, I'll have to get off of the air and give the attention to LadyDemoness, who's got more than a few _scaaaaaaaawy_ stories for you, boys and girls, so be sure to tune in!

Til next time, this is theSelphgirls and this is GhostWatch!


	11. Part Eleven: Gathering

**Part Eleven: Gathering**

Alright, this wasn't too hard to play with. I could _totally_ be the next big film director.

My uncle Haru, the owner of the electronic store, looked at me as if I was some sort of idiot before snatching the camera out of my hand and turning it upside-down. … Oops.

"I swear, Riku, anything that's not your stupid computer you need both hands and a lantern to find your ass." He commented with a smile, and I could tell from the way his mouth was twitching that he really, _really_ wanted to start laughing. Asshole. I glared at him but he just turned the camera back off and handed it over.

I flipped the little camcorder open again, pulled out the small screen to just where I wanted it, slipped my hand underneath the holding band, and pushed the red power button. There was no small amount of pride when it turned on normally and started recording my uncle's face.

He leaned on the counter and stuck out his tongue at me, wiggling his ears for good measure as I practiced. "There you go, that's it!" Uncle cheered as I waved the camera around and then stepped closer to make sure I got a good shot of the dragon tattoo that curled around his neck. Where's the zoom on this thing?

"Just how good is the audio on this?" I asked curiously before lowering it to the counter to get a shot of the five other cameras I would be taking with me. The boxes were neatly lined up in a row next to the six baggies that held the recorders.

Uncle Haru rubbed his mouth before answering with a shrug. "The cameras are alright, nothing all that special, but the wires are even better. We use them in police work, so they're damn sensitive. They'll pick up anything for about… oh, ten feet or more, depending on how the air is blowing. Wind will knock them right out cause they're not really designed for the outdoors. If it's windy, all you'll get is a –" He makes a dull whistling noise and shrugs. "Anyway, just tape them right about _here_-" Haru made a motion to his chest, right near his heart and by his shirt pocket. "And you guys should be fine. There's no wind on the forecast tonight anyway."

I nodded and grinned. "Alright, Uncle, thanks!"

He just smiled. "You guys just be careful tonight," Haru said softly before looking out the window. A frown slowly emerged on his face, a clear sign he was thinking hard about something. After a moment, he turned back to me. "I want you guys to keep your phones charged up and for everyone to have something to protect yourselves with."

I blinked hard before staring at him. He shook his head hard and then leaned back on the counter, running his fingers through his cropped white hair for a moment. "Whoever took Sora… he's still out there, Riku," Haru murmured quietly, almost as if he was talking to himself instead of me. There was a faraway look in his eyes as he looked at me. "I remember the day he disappeared… he came in here on the way back to the school and asked me if I could give him a juice and he said thank you like he always did… I remember… that I told him to be careful on the way back to school. He said he would and he just walked out with that little math book under his arm and chugging his juice and not a damn care in the world. Well… the next thing I knew, I was hearing reports that he was gone. Kidnapped and no one could find 'im."

Taking his hand in mine, I let Uncle swear viciously under his breath and then I wiped the tears from his eyes. "It's okay, Haru," I told him with a smile.

He shook his head hard and yanked out of my grasp. "Just be careful and then I won't have to worry about you," He said gruffly before pulling out a paper bag and beginning to drop the cameras inside. "And you better _not_ fuck up my stuff." He added just when I was beginning to think he cared a little more about me than he let on.

"Will do, Uncle Haru." I chuckled.

He nodded and kept getting my purchases ready. For whatever reason, I began thinking about the other five kids that would be joining my experiment. After Selphie's radio broadcast, everyone was getting ready to finish this once and for all. I knew I was ready to put this to an end. A smile crossed my lips as I leaned against the counter; I could finally put the words together in the way I wanted them.

Tonight, I would finally write Sora's sad story an ending. Tonight was the night we finally got to put Sora's ghost to rest.


	12. Part Twelve: Worrying

**Part Twelve: Worrying**

Today… it was today.

I curled up underneath my blanket and covers, too scared to move. It wasn't even evening yet but I was already getting scared. Riku was getting the cameras and stuff, Axel had promised to buy everyone snacks, and Roxas was probably convincing our folks to let us go out tonight.

And here I was, lying in my bed and trying not to cry. I was trying not to remember that Sora visited me before.

"Xion?" Roxas called out from the other room, making me peek out from the covers. From the begging sound in his voice, he was talking to Mom and needed my help. Like always. Reluctantly, I pulled myself out of bed and shoved my feet into my slippers, walking out of my room and into the kitchen.

Sure enough, Mom was leaning against the kitchen counter with a knife in her hand. That… was never good. Roxas interrupted her when she was cooking.

"Honey…" She started the second she saw me and her eyes narrowed in rage. "What's this about Roxas going out with Axel tonight to…?" Mom turned back to Roxas, who turned red and cleared his throat.

"Um, get closure over the loss of our dear brother?" He asked helpfully and he flashed her a big big smile to try to convince her.

Mom just frowned and glared at me, like she thought this was my idea.

I rubbed at my hair and sighed. Might as well get it over with… "Mom, this guy, Riku, said that he wanted to prove that Sora's not a g-ghost…" She was staring at me, and the knife started to move. I started shaking that much harder and my words suddenly died on my tongue. "G…gho…s….t" I heard myself whisper weakly.

She turned around and slammed the knife back into an open drawer, making both Roxas and I jump about ten feet in the air. A cup that had been on the edge of the counter tumbled off of the edge, shattering into a million pieces just as Mom burst into tears.

"Dammit, Xion!" She yelled angrily and she turned back around, marching forward and grabbing me by the shoulder. Ow! Let go! Her hands were tight against my skin, pressing in hard enough that I started to get scared she would leave bruises. Her eyes were full of pain as she screamed in my face. "Sora's dead! You don't need to prove that! Your brother is _dead_ and there's nothing you or Riku can do about it!"

"I…" I stammered, too scared to say anything more. I never could talk to her. She never understood, she never cared except if Roxas was in danger. And if he was, then it was my fault. It would always be my fault because I was the one she said killed my brother.

Roxas leaped forward and grabbed my mom's elbow, gently pulling her off of me. "Mommy," He said in a suddenly honeysweet voice and he smiled at her again. Like always, Mom softened at his touch. "It's part of Axel's project, too… you know how he wants to be a psychologist?"

Mom nodded and put her hand on Roxas's, patting it gently.

"Well," My brother continued as he looked over her shoulder and nodded at me, giving me an unspoken signal to sit down. I pulled out a chair for Mom first; he immediately led her into it and sat her down gently. "Mom, he said that this would be an activity to test the limits of fear and of preconceived notions on people performing a task. So it's closure and stuff, so we're benefiting our unfulfilled emotional needs through it," he paused and nodded to her, like he was agreeing with something she was thinking. "You know, like the therapist said." He finished.

I stared at him. He had just full-out lied to our mom. Golden boy Roxas just _lied_ to our mom. He never took advantage of her! Never, not even when he broke the rules, because he knew how much our folks worried about him. And… he just lied.

And she was eating it up. "Roxas, honey, I don't want you running around so late," Mom said immediately, but she was already weakening against it. And he knew it. Roxas took a seat next to her and slips his hand into hers.

"Mom, it'll only be like, thirty minutes tops. Maybe forty. If you're so worried, then Dad can come get us when the experiment is over. We'll be at the electronic store." He promised and as a final gesture of 'good-son' behavior, he picked up her hand and kissed it.

She sighed and put her hand on Roxas' cheek. "… You have to wait in the store when everything's done. And don't you even think of leaving!" Roxas nodded and hugged her tight, leaning up to whisper something in her ear. Probably, 'you're the best' or 'thank you'.

Son of a… if I'd tried this stunt, she would have sent me to Dad to get my backside tanned!

Mom sighed again and looked at Roxas with that same sad, wistful smile. "You're getting to be so big, Roxie," She murmured fondly as she patted his cheek. "Ask your father and get his permission, too."

"Yes Mom," Roxas said in a sing-song voice and he kissed her cheek next before he stood up, obviously going to go into the boatyard to catch Dad before he ran off.

The instant that he had his back turned, Mom's eyes locked onto mine. "And you better take care of your brother, Xion," She commanded quietly, her voice suddenly ice-cold and cruel. Roxas froze at the sound of it, his startled face showing that he had never heard her talk like that before.

I had. I heard her talk like that all the time.

"… Yes, Mom."


	13. Part Thirteen: Pay Attention

**I'm afraid I'll have to apologize for the quality of work this time around; I'm half-asleep but the chapter's done anyway, so my loss is your gain, ladies and gentlemen. **

**Disclaimers: Kingdom Hearts does not belong to me but what does hasn't quite appeared yet. **

**This is a bit of a teaser or filler chapter, but it does help set the tone for the ones to come, so please excuse it. Thank you and sleep well.**

* * *

**Part Thirteen: Pay Attention**

"Hey, Dad?" I called out to the workshop but like always, there was only a muffled swear to answer back. Sounded like he hit his head on the bottom of the boat again.

I waited by the door for a few minutes while Dad managed to himself out from under the damn thing just enough to answer. "Yeah, Roxas, I'll be in there in a minute, don't come in yet!" He shouted before swearing viciously again as a second, much louder thunk reached me. I leaned back on the doorway. Uh huh, that would be him smacking his shoulder again.

After a few more seconds, I poked my head in through the doorway. Dad glared at me from his pinned position under the small rowboat and sighed before running his fingers through his greased-soaked brown hair. Taking that as permission to enter the man cave, I walked in and gave him a big grin.

"Got stuck again?" I asked innocently.

"Don't you sass me, boy," Dad snapped immediately, though it was more like he was just joking around rather than him being angry. After wiggling a bit and pulling more of his legs out, he sat up and held his hand out to me. "What are you doing here, anyway? Did you want your allowance?" He asked before looking around to see where something went, probably his glue gun.

He could never find that thing, not even if he had a map and three lanterns and it was right by his hand.

I shook my head. "Mom said to ask you permission to go out tonight," I shrugged before picking up the can of hot glue and handing it over. He snatched it out of my hand before I could burn myself and ducked back under the boat to start gluing the planks back together.

"She give you permission first?" Dad asked as he hammered and glued away. It shook hard under his careful treatment, preparing itself to be ready for the open water once again. I nodded once before remember, duh, he's under the boat and he can't see me.

"Yeah, I asked her and she said as long as I got your permission, I could go."

He stayed quiet for a few more seconds before sticking his head back out. His goggled eyes glared at me, obviously trying to tell if I was telling the truth or not. I stared back at him and folded my arms as I waited. He just rolled his eyes and lifted the lenses down slightly to reveal his eyes so he could give me the look of the Gods. You know, the look that basically warned you against anything you did before you even did it. That look. "If you lied to your mother, I'm going to make sure you wish you were never born," Dad warned me. I nodded patiently and crouched down beside him to hand him another hammer. "What are you doing anyway?" He asked next.

It never paid to lie to my dad; he could sniff out lies like a bloodhound sniffs out dead bodies.

"Ghost hunting," I said with a small wince. Even though I said it quietly, almost whispered it even, Dad froze and the boat stopped shaking. Aw, hell.

"Roxas Jessie Minami, I am going to _pretend_ I didn't hear that," He said before pulling himself out completely and flipping the boat over with one arm. I gulped; oh no, he turned the boat around. He never does that unless he's really mad. He liked working on the bottom of the boat that way, he said it made the quality of the repair better. He only ever flipped it over when he was too upset to focus on doing a good job normally. Dad wiped his apron off as best as he could, getting rid of a few dried up glue chunks and sawdust before turning the radio on.

He was really mad.

As the song started playing, some love song that Dad used to sing to my brother in order to get him to sleep, I saw that his eyes got sadder and his shoulders sank, like a heavy weight had suddenly been dropped onto him. He shook his head once.

"We took you to that therapist so you could forget Sora," Dad finally said in this really disappointed voice that cut right to the soul. Like he had thought... I was better or something...

I scuffed my shoe against the dirt floor and stood perfectly still. "I know… I… just wanna _try_," I told him quietly. He straightened up and looked at me as he pulled his goggles off of his head and put them around his neck. Dad always listened, even if he never could do anything against my tyrant of a mom. "I… I don't remember Sora anymore. … I just… wanna see him again." I admitted quietly, feeling tears start falling from my eyes.

I didn't want to be such a baby, but dammit, I wanted to see my brother. I wanted… I wanted to let him know that… I loved him and that I was sorry that I couldn't remember his face anymore. It hurt, 'cause I knew he loved me. I wanted to let him know that I loved him back. This… this was my one chance.

"Roxas," Dad started to say.

'_D…'_

A burst of static came through the battered radio speakers, sending us both jumping as the machine started talking by itself.

'… _S…s….s…t…o…p…. it….!' _

"The fuck is wrong with this thing?" Dad asked out loud as he grabbed it by the handle and slammed it hard against the table. It immediately shut up and turned off with a loud thunking noise. He glanced over at me, his eyebrow raised. "… This thing musta picked up something on that friend of yours' radio show." He shrugged and put it back onto the table. "The damn thing's as old as your brother-"

I chuckled softly, remembering the story. "Yeah, I know, you bought it to drown him out." I laughed as Dad took a playful swipe at me, making me have to jump back to dodge his leather-gloved hand. "That's what Mom says!" I complained but Dad just threw his head back and laughed.

"Damn straight, your brother was one of the loudest babies I ever damn heard!" He laughed humorlessly. I shrank back at the noise; he didn't sound happy about it, he sounded absolutely miserable and angry about it. Dad missed my brother and sometimes, it felt like something in Dad had died inside along with him.

Maybe… that's why I ended up so obsessed over Sora. Because I wanted him to laugh and mean it. I wanted everything to go back to how it used to be.

"Da…" I hadn't used that name for him in a long time, not since I was a baby, and the sound of it makes him stop and look at me. For once, he looks me in the eyes instead of just focusing on what I was saying. I scuffed my shoe against the floor again. "So… can… can I go?" I asked finally, unable to take his laughter.

That broken, hurtful laughter… just… one more reason… to find my brother. To make this whole thing end. To give him – and my Dad and my Mom – a last good bye if he was really dead and to make our family whole if he wasn't, like I hoped.

He blinked at me before nodding once and turning back to the broken radio. "Take Axel and Xion with you, wait for me in the store when you're done," Dad said finally before opening up the back of the radio and pulling out the battery.

As he did so, the broken mechanism decided to let out one last strangled cry, one that made us both freeze.

'_S… s… stop… it… __**no**__…!'_

"That's…" Dad and I said in unison as we stared at the old D battery in the old man's hand. It was completely out of the radio, and the piece of junk hadn't even started talking until Dad finished pulling it out. But… we both knew what we had heard and we looked at each other to make sure the other heard it too.

Dad's face was uneasy as he asked the question quietly. "Hey," He murmured softly, putting his hand onto my shoulder as I started shaking like a leaf. "This... this is gonna sound a little funny but... Roxie… did… did you hear a… little _kid_?"


	14. Part Fourteen: Listening

**Part Fourteen: Listening**

I didn't know if I should be scared.

To be honest, I'd just say that I'm… worried. I had a bad feeling of what would happen tonight. It was making me uneasy all day, this feeling of just plain... wrongness in the air. My dad suggest that I not go since we would be out so late and I was so nervous about it. I wanted to listen to him, but if Riku's going, I would go, too. We both _needed_ to go, if for different reasons.

We had different reasons to try to find Sora.

But... this was the first time in almost ten years that I had gone to Riku's house; I didn't know if that was part of the reason I felt so uneasy.

I looked at the rest of the kids and just listened as Riku introduced all the strangers to Selphie and I. He had picked them up sometime yesterday and, at their request, convinced Selph to let them in on the experiment. The two boys seemed pretty excited to do it, and they nodded vigorously at me when their names were announced. To my surprise, the two younger ones were Roxas and Xion Minami, Sora's little brother and sister.

Since we weren't in the same grade and because Sora's family eventually moved away from the house they lived in originally, I hadn't kept in touch with them. I couldn't help but smile at how big they'd gotten, how much Roxas looked like an older version of his brother, and how cute Xion was, even if she refused to talk to anyone. The other guy, Axel, turned out to be a college student that was, in his words, 'figuring out how people think by messing with their heads.'

"I just wanna record your guys' reactions to fear on this thing, and make sure Xion isn't too scared," He added when Selphie asked why he was coming along. Xion glared at him and looked really embarrassed about the comment; we shared a smile as she helped Riku put out plates and glasses for everyone.

Riku cleared his throat as we all sat down at his kitchen table; we'd all brought some snacks, but Axel had taken the cake by bringing a bunch of pizzas from the restaurant on Main Street. It was with half a slice of pizza dangling from everyone's mouths that Riku started up his little speech.

"I know that we don't know each other all that well," He said while nodding to Selphie and the three others. Roxas and Axel rolled their eyes while Xion just ducked her head. Selphie giggled but let the comment pass. "But I'd like to ask if you guys have… had any weird experiences, anything that might help us out in our little… 'ghost hunt.'" Riku looked a little embarrassed at calling it that and more than a little shy about it. Uncomfortable even. He reached up and ran his fingers through his hair, a nervous habit he had since he was a little kid.

"About Sora?" I asked curiously and Riku nodded. I stopped, knowing that I was probably going to sound crazy. I mean, I didn't really… believe it… or remember the time after Sora disappeared all that well but… "Like… like the voices on the radio?"

Roxas immediately stood up, dropping his slice of pizza on the floor from how fast he moved. Like someone had just drained all of the blood from his body, he turned as white as a sheet and started hyperventilating. Axel started to get up, maybe to soothe him, but the boy started shaking.

"You heard them too?! I thought I was going _nuts_!" He shouted but he didn't… sound scared. In fact, he sounded… _excited_? He reached out and grabbed me out of my chair, pulling me around in a happy, frenzied dance. We spun in circles around the table, somehow managing to dodge all their chairs as Roxas dragged me all over the kitchen. I heard Riku yell at him to leave me alone but it was Axel who actually did anything; he grabbed my hand and yanked me away from the happy kid before shoving me back into my chair and putting his arm around Roxas' neck and bringing him to a stop.

Immediately, he started calming down but whispered to Axel excitedly, like he didn't want anyone else to know what he had heard. The look on the college student's face was completely uncaring and he just nodded to Roxas before making him sit back down.

W… what just happened? ... Ew... I feel dizzy... I leaned forward and slammed my head onto the table. I think I might be sick.

Riku leaned back in his chair and tapped his finger against the table to get my attention. There was a serious look in his eyes, a frown on his lips, and a little bit of anger in his expression. I gulped. There was nothing that Riku hated more than a liar, the reason why he hated the ghost stories and started up this experiment was to prove that everyone was lying.

The story started spilling out without me even thinking about it.

"When… when he disappeared… I started hearing voices. It… it never happened unless I was alone. The radio would turn on by itself and I would hear voices in the static, like someone was trying to talk through it... But that can't happen, I know it's only a one way thing," I paused, remembering how much it had scared me the first time I heard it.

I was in my room just after Sora vanished, playing with one of my dolls and crying because I missed Sora when this little voice suddenly came through the song I was listening to. My radio was really old, so it would mess up a lot and get all static-y without warning. That day… that day, I was listening to this old love song when a voice suddenly came through.

"It… it was a little boy's voice…" I said quietly, feeling the weight of the doll in my hand like I was six years old again. I could feel it, I could feel my dollie in my hand, like I was that little kid again. Even though I was sitting in Riku's kitchen, I could hear the burst of static in my head and the stuttering, helpless voice on the other end of the radio. It scared me. It scared me, even though I knew I wasn't supposed to be afraid. "He asked… if he could go home." I finished lamely, unable to find a better way to stop talking.

Riku put his hand on mine as the trio started whispering to each other: Roxas excited, Xion scared, and Axel filing away the information to use it later.

Selphie clapped her hands together eagerly, earning a glare from everyone besides Roxas. "That's sooo _cool_!" She cheered. If I could slap her, I think I would have at that moment. It hadn't been 'cool,' it had scared the living hell out of me and even now, I can't stand to listen to the radio when I'm by myself.

"You sure you weren't imagining it?" Axel asked next, rubbing his arms as he tried to see what I was feeling from just staring. Guess he really was a psych major. I looked at him, seeing a strange uneasiness in his face. The only thing I could do was nod, and keep talking. "Yeah. It was him… that's… why I want to see if we can find him. But I have a bad feeling, a really bad feeling that something wrong is going to happen." I admitted.

"Something wrong?" Riku asked in confusion, and I saw a smirk suddenly appear on his lips. He stood up and slammed his hands on the table, making us all stare at him in shock. He was angry, _really_ angry and it showed in his eyes. They were full of pain and anger and maybe a bit of fear. "There's nothing that's going to happen tonight! All we're going to do is walk not even 30 feet alone! You guys aren't _scared_ of walking alone, _right_?" He demanded, looking around at everyone sharply, like he was daring us to admit that we were all a little spooked.

He also sounded like he was trying to convince himself after hearing my story.

Xion gulped and nodded, saying that yes, she was a little scared. Riku shook his head but shrugged in sympathy. He gave her a smile, obviously feeling a little sorry for her. "Xion, you can go right after me and then wait in the store for everyone else. If you hurry, it won't take you more than a few minutes to get there-" He started to say, but then he stopped.

The six of us jumped when a radio on the kitchen counter suddenly spoke with complete clarity: _"Cut …it … __**out**__…!"_

He looked over at Selphie, who's mouth dropped open and she started to scream in excitement.


	15. Part Fifteen: Other Side

**I hate nightmares... But, if you would kindly please read and review. I thank you and am not trying to use mind control on you.  
**

**Disclaimers: Kingdom Hearts, botflies, sandflies, and that Bioshock reference do not in any way belong to me.**

* * *

**Part Fifteen: Other Side**

I needed to keep running!

Dirt, rocks, trees, vines swung under my hands as I burst through the haphazard jungle, rushing to keep up with the swarming heard of white flying insects buzzing toward the screaming girl. Her screams and that noise, that bloodshaking _noise_ of their chewing on flesh, were the only things keeping me focused. I warned her, I _warned_ her not to come in here!

"Make it stop, please, make it stop!" She shrieked as she ran, but the sandflies didn't show her any mercy. As I ran behind them, I saw a whole mess more than half a dozen pouring wounds dripping with blood from where the flies started to burrow into her skin. Her jacket had been torn off, her dress ripped as she slammed into trees and into rocks to try to get them off of her. She was being driven crazy from the pain, something that happened all the time with large prey animals that fell into the forest.

I had no time left; either she died by the swarm engulfing her, or I killed the swarm. The only thing that could kill them was acid, a dip in the lake near my house. But we were nowhere near there!

As we ran, the little boxes with the screens in them came to life and music started to play, a thousand songs that made the flies screech and stop in mid-air. As Larxene barreled past them and back behind the trees, the rest of the swarm started to fly toward the boxes, to listen to the songs being broadcasted through the air.

I stopped long enough to listen to one of the boxes, one that had kids talking on it. One of them, a girl that wasn't much younger than Larxene herself, was talking about listening to something. I picked it up and tucked it under my arm before I charged back into the forest.

As I ran, I heard the kids keep talking, someone slamming their hands on something hard, and then a boy sneering at them. He sure sounded confident about something. I ducked underneath a rotting tree branch, nearly dropping the box when I heard that boy comment about walking alone. My eyes widened in fear before I flung the box back onto the ground, too scared to hold onto it anymore.

Was… was _he_ listening? I couldn't tell. He liked playing games too much for me to tell.

I was lonely, I almost never heard things on the boxes anymore except for music and I almost never heard another human voice, but that blatant disrespect made me stop. He was talking to someone else, saying that he or she could go after them; a walk? My eyes narrowed as he commented that it wouldn't take them too long to finish after them.

My voice was rusty, hoarse, and in pain from me not using it as I yelled into the screen: "Cut it out!"

I ran off, leaving the box to rot in the sand before the flies snapped out of it and went after Larxene again. I needed to find her and to get the bugs out of her skin before they started burrowing into her eyes. But something about those voices on the other side of the box made me uneasy, like I should have recognized them. I should have known those voices…

Ah, well, time to go dip a girl in the lake. First I had to catch her.


	16. Part Sixteen: Ready, Set, Start

**Ah... now we're getting to the fun part. You may insert an evil chuckle, if you so wish. :)**

**Disclaimers: Kingdom Hearts is not mine but I extend a hearty nod of appreciation to its creators. The idea, however, is thankfully mine, since I can keep writing this and not worry about copyright! As such, please enjoy yourselves and review.**

* * *

**Part Sixteen: Ready, Set, Start**

I stared at the radio, completely unable to understand what the hell I had just heard.

Was… was I hallucinating? Had Riku finally snapped and started hearing voices? Why was I thinking in the third person?

"Holy shit," breathed Selphie from next to me. I turned to look at her, not only startled that she swore but that she had managed to say anything in the freaked out atmosphere. She caught my eye and giggled hysterically. "You heard that right? Everyone _**heard**_ that, right?! You guys know what that _**was**_, right?!" She half-whispered like she was worried about scaring the ghost away.

Yeah, ghost my ass. It was… static. Gotta be static. Picked up from another radio station.

Axel coughed, making everyone jump and stare at him. He blinked slowly before coughing again and clearing his throat. "Well, it's obvious here that _someone's_ an asshole," He said bluntly, looking at me specifically before putting his hand on Xion's shoulder. "You okay, poppet?"

Xion let out a few wheezing breaths before whimpering and hiding her face under her hood again.

We all looked away when she started to cry.

"If one of you fuckers did this as a joke, Riku, I'm kicking your ass," Roxas leaned forward in his seat and slammed his hands on the table in emphasis, sending one of the plastic cups clattering to the ground. … Sora's lil bro was seriously _pissed_. He stood up and walked over to his sister, pulling her into a tight hug and letting her cry into his shoulder.

She couldn't stop shaking.

My heart ached like someone had just twisted a knife in it. Oh man, now I was starting to feel bad. I didn't mean to scare her, but I hadn't done shit to the radio!

"You accusing me of something?" I found myself hissing back as I stood up, ready to beat this brat of a kid into the ground. Even if he was my best friend's brother, there was just something in his smug little face that pissed me off! I looked down just in time to see Axel grab my jacket sleeve and yank on it.

The hell?

"Now, ladies, you're _both_ beautiful now sit the fuck down," He warned calmly, still patting Xion. She let out a soft hiccup before rubbing her face hard and nodding. "P-pl-please stop," She stuttered weakly, freezing both of us in our tracks.

Roxas bowed his head and let out a violent curse word before lowering her back into the chair and turning back to the radio. His eyes narrowed suspiciously but quickly brightened, now pleased. "Then… that was real? That was my brother?"

We all shrugged. "That, or it was some static," I snorted in laughter, feeling the air of fear leave the room. For a brief second there, just for a little bit, I felt terrified. That there was something wrong, that we were all doing something horrible, that we were making the biggest mistake of our lives. It was like… I dunno, like… we…

I guess the best way to explain it was that it was like looking into a dark room when I was a kid. When I was little, but way before Sora died, I'd look into shadows and imagine I could see the things that took him away. I pretended I could see evil things, ghosts and witches and goblins and these monsters that hid inside of shadows. Now… it felt like I was doing it again, like I was peeking into a room full of those monsters.

Except this time I was doing it for real. The monsters and the ghosts were real.

I rubbed my mouth and looked over at Xion, sighing softly. "Look… if you're so scared," I told her, making her look up at me. From under the hood I could only see her teary blue eyes and quite frankly, that made me feel even worse because they looked just like Sora's did. I gulped and shook my head. "If you're so scared, you can go right after me, like I said. I won't force you to go though."

Selphie let out a whine and started to complain that she needed all six of us to try for it, but Axel and I immediately glared at her and shook our heads in unison. He flashed me a solemn grin before wrapping his arm around Xion's shoulder. He shook his head adamantly.

But Xion spoke first.

"I'll do it…" She said quietly, sounding like someone was dragging the words from her throat. A moment later, she coughed and shrugged with faked boredom. I couldn't help but smile at the gesture; Sora used to do the same thing. "It's not like I have anything better to do," Xion stated calmly and she nodded to herself.

I turned away then, going to the counter to get the bag of cameras and wires. Holding it up, I removed one of each and started to show everyone how to put them one. They snapped to attention, each one focusing hard on my hands as I trailed the wire down my shirt and into my pocket and put the mic near my mouth.

The radio crackled as they watched.

When I was satisfied they had seen enough to know how to put theirs on, I tossed the bag to Axel and let him pass them all out. I had enough of these games, I had enough of this experiment, and I had enough of someone trying to freak me out. We needed to finish, and finish immediately.

I held up two fingers as Kairi, the last one to get the equipment, figured out how to turn the camera on and to record. "Remember, my house is right next to Sora's old one. Straight to the elementary school and then you guys can go to my uncle's store," I paused, remembering how much he had whined about getting us snacks and drinks. He had no idea that Axel would have us covered, heh. "He has some more snacks there, so if you guys didn't eat enough…"

Roxas groaned. "Yes, mom, we got it!" He snapped, making Axel snicker under his breath. I glared at them; little fuckers, running around and messing with everyone… It just wasn't fair how they had to be together for everything plus having Xion in the mix. The kid smirked and waved his hand. "Just go already, before you get too _scared_." He mocked.

Oh, if I had my Struggle bat, he would already be on the floor holding his…

I frowned and sighed. "Seven minutes, then I'm calling Kairi to send Xion over," Roxas stopped and stared at me before opening his mouth to ask another question. Oh no you don't. I held up a hand and shook my head. "Xion'll give me all your phone numbers and I have Selphie's already. Later."

"Be careful," Xion and Kairi said in unison, making the other one blink and turn to look over in surprise. They grinned before slapping their hands together and laughing. Oh, I'll never understand the human mind, especially when it's a girl's. I nodded and bowed my head to them, giving them just a little bit of respect (which also served to piss Roxas off, just a bonus) before leaving.

As I walked out of my house, the sun was already setting at my back.


	17. Part Seventeen: W-a-t-c-h-i-n-g

**You have no idea how physically painful this chapter was to write.  
**

**Disclaimers: Kingdom Hearts is not mine but I extend a hearty nod of thanksto its creators. The idea, however, is completely mine, as far as I know! As such, please enjoy yourselves and review.**

* * *

**Part Seventeen: W-a-t-c-h-i-n-g**

Littleboylittleboywalkingalone, allalone, catchhim, catchhim!

Ignoringmeagain, noyoudon't, youhavetolisten,youhavetolistentome!

We'refriends, we'refriends, aren'twe?

Oh,littleboy, walking, he'swalkingonhisown, catchhim, catchhimright_**now**_!

Lookingaround, hecan'tseeme…. Icanseeyou! Icanseeyou! HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA, HECAN'TSEEME!

_**HE**_

_**CAN'T**_

**SEE**

_**ME!**_

Wakeup, youhavetowakeupandcatchtheboy!

CATCHTHEBOYCATCHTHEBOYCATCHTHEBOYCATCHTHEBOYCATCHT HEBOYCATCHTHEBOYCATCHTHEBOYCATCHTHEBOYCATCHTHEBOY CATCHTHEBOYCATCHTHEBOYCATCHTHEBOYCATCHTHEBOYCATCHT HE BOYCATCHTHEBOYCATCH THEBOYCATCHTHEBOYCATCHTHEBOYCA TCHTHEBOYCATCHTHE BOYCATCHTHEBOYCATCHTHEBOY CATCHTHE BOYCATCHTHEBOYCATCHTHEBOYCATCHTHEBOYCATCHTHEBOYCAT CHTHEBOY!

_IKNOWYOUCANHEARME!_

_GETTHEBOY!_

Let'splayagame, let'splaya_**game**_withtheboy!


	18. Part Eighteen: Take a Walk

***pats the muse, grinning at the little demon in delight* You clever girl, you. I had way too much fun with this!**

**Disclaimers: Kingdom Hearts is not mine though I give a grateful nod to its creators; the idea belongs to my delightful little muse and I. Please read and review...!**

* * *

**Part Eighteen: Take a Walk**

As I adjusted the camera on my wrist, I couldn't help but feel really stupid.

I mean, running around after curfew? There was no one else on the road! I looked around, sighing into the microphone as I passed Sora's old house. It was the whole point, but it didn't mean that I wasn't a little creeped out. Normally, this street was full of people…

"Alright, this is Riku Takamura and the time is… just a little past ten," I said after a moment. Man, I felt stupid talking to myself. Like I had schizophrenia or something. Coughing slightly, I lifted up the camera and held it up to my eye.

Alright, all good there. Uncle's camera was working like a charm.

"So far, so good," I said to it, pretending that it was a real person. That made it just a little bit less awkward, a little less… dumb. "I don't see anything…" I paused and trained the camera over to some of the bushes lining the road. My heart started to pound in my chest as I took a few steps closer to a rustling plant.

Five seconds later, a cat leaped out from the shadows and peered up at me.

I blinked at it and its golden eyes narrowed at me for a bit before it turned around, haughtily marching off as if I wasn't worth more than a second of its time.

Suddenly overcome with laughter, I made sure to get a shot of the cat as it strolled down the street. Take that, ghost freaks!

'_**B…o….y….!'**_

The laughs died in my throat. Was… was that a voice? I turned around and looked around, trying to find who had called out to me. I was half-way done with the walk, just a few feet away from the elementary school, but I knew I was completely alone. Everyone was inside, including the others that would be taking part of the experiment.

A nagging voice in my head started to comment that Roxas – or maybe even Axel – had followed me out to get back at me for the radio.

Well, one way to find that out.

I pulled out my phone and flipped it open, rapidly scrolling down the options with one hand as I kept walking forward. After a few seconds of using my left hand – it took me a little longer since it wasn't my dominant hand – I finally found the contacts and selected Kairi's number.

"Riku?" She asked, answering after the first ring. I sighed and looked behind me, checking the shadows to see if I could spot a short blond or a tall lanky redhead. Nothing. "Hey Kai, Roxas and Axel are fucking with me, you mind asking Xion to give me their numbers so I can tell them to piss off?" I took a moment to adjust the camera strap on my wrist again; the damn thing was itchy as hell.

Kairi paused for just a second before whispering quietly. "Riku, Roxas and Axel are still here. They're waiting for you to finish."

My blood instantly went cold.

What… the hell? Then… who called out to me?

"Riku?"

I gulped and turned back around, looking at the shadows again. My body started shaking uncontrollably. Who was there? Who was calling out to me?

'_**Litt…le…b..o…y….!'**_

There it was again! I let out a whimper and I immediately started running. "Riku, what's going on?" Kairi shouted suddenly, probably hearing how I had started to freak out. I gulped in a few extra breathes of air as I heard this pat-pat-pat-_pat_ noise right behind me, right on my heels, actually.

I recognized the noise. It was the sound of someone's shoes slapping against the cobblestone road.

"Kairi, there's someone here with me! Are you sure it's not Roxas or Axel?!" I yelled into the phone, briefly forgetting that the whole point of the experiment was to find out if there was a ghost following people around on the road at night. Fuck the experiment, fuck my bravado, I just wanted to get outta here! The minute that I said it, I could hear everyone else start to scream and talk over each other, each one trying to force themselves to be heard.

Axel's voices comes out the loudest.

"Riku, listen to me! Just keep running and I'll be there in a second!"

I didn't know why he was trying to help me. We weren't friends, we didn't know each other, and we had never spoken before just a few days ago. But I heard the door slam faintly in the background, the first sign that someone was finally coming to get me.

But I felt something drape across my shoulder, tightening even as my lips parted to scream. "_Kai_-!" I started to say, but the… thing moved up my body, lingering long enough to find out just how cold it was, just how sickeningly sticky it was, before shooting right into my mouth.

I collapsed to my knees, struggling to get it out of me and trying to rip a sudden weight off of my shoulders. There was something there, something holding onto my body and tightening, tightening, tightening harder and harder until my head swam from the lack of oxygen. I couldn't breathe. I couldn't breathe and I couldn't scream as the thing started to move inside of me.

I felt it inside of my stomach, in my throat, in my heart.

Tears trickled down my face as I scratched at my face, as I tried to get it off. I could hear laughter behind me even as the world started to go dark. Stars danced in my eyes as I listened to the boy's laughter.

'_**B…o…y…litt…le…boy…my….my…toy…new…new…**_**toy**_**!' **_

I wanted to scream, but I couldn't.

Just as sudden as it had started, the thing let go and allowed me to fall over to the road. I gasped for breath, wheezing weakly, barely able to take in air from the damage it had done to my lungs. Oh, please… don't let my lungs be broken. Please… My heart hurt, my heart hurt like someone had suddenly stepped in it and tried to pulverize it.

I looked up and saw a little boy standing there, a little boy with dark golden eyes. He was small, barely six or so. I couldn't see him that well._ But he could obviously see me. _He looked down at me with interest, like he just saw something he had wanted for a very long time. Looking down at his hand, I saw black tendrils circling his fingers, twisting and churning like living shadows. He caught where my gaze was and started to giggle and hold out his hand to me. It started to move again, stretching outward me like it wanted to go back into my mouth.

I could tell he wanted to keep going and that he wanted to put that stuff back inside of me.

'_**So…rr…y…'**_

I could hear the voice, but the boy's mouth wasn't moving. He tilted his head at me, tilting it so far to the side that it looked like someone had snapped his neck. There was this sickening grin on his face, a twisted, evil look on his face as he laughed at me. But his lips weren't moving. I could still hear him.

'_**N…o…m….ore…f…un…fou…nd…new…toy…'**_

A… a new toy…? The boy giggled again and turned away from me, his head still snapped at that angle. _**'F…f…fri…en…d….ne…ew….fr…ie…nd….'**_ He hissed, sounding absolutely delighted at the idea. The boy's voice, like a rattlesnake shaking its tail to warn everyone that he was about to strike, sent shivers down my spine and made me start crying again. It wasn't human. It was in no fucking way human. But he looked it. He looked human. The little boy clapped his hands together and started to walk into the nearest shadow. I reached out a hand to him, struggling to grab his ankle and stop him before he got whoever it was he was after.

I had to… I had… to stop… Sora…

My vision blurred and my eyes started to close from the lack of oxygen.

"Riku! Riku, Riku can you hear us?!" A voice shouted from down the street.

The boy froze for a moment before whipping back around and looking down at me. For the first time, I managed to lift up the camera – I had no idea how I was still carrying it – and get a good shot of his face. His expression warped, changed into a sinister smirk and he caught my eye again, waggled his eyebrows at me suggestively, before turning back around and vanishing into the shadow.

One second he was there, close enough for me to touch, and the next he was completely gone. Not a trace to show he had ever been there. Not a shadow, not even a drop of the black stuff he had been taunting me with. He was just… gone. I only knew one thing. It was over. Experiment over.

I pressed the button to turn off the camera and promptly blacked out.


	19. Part Nineteen: Call It In

**Part Nineteen: Call It In**

This couldn't be real.

I mean, seriously, what the fuck, this couldn't be real! I crouched beside an unconscious Riku and pushed my finger against his throat. The minute I touched his skin, he shivered hard, pulling away from me.

Geez, thanks, Riku, whatta pal.

I pressed my finger against him harder, making sure that I could feel his pulse hammering away at his veins before reaching for his eyes. He had them closed, but if I could open them up for him, I could check if he had hit his head or something. I mean, I wasn't a doctor but… I could probably tell, right?

"Riku? Can you hear me?" I asked next, half-remembering something from one of my health classes. You always had to ask the patient if they needed help. 'Course, when they were unconscious, like Riku was, there was no point in asking…

He stirred a little, opening his eyes just a tiny bit. It was just enough for him to look at me; I could see the flash of recognition in his eyes and he relaxed. "R… R-Roxas…" Riku moaned weakly and he started trying to reach up to me. I pushed his hand down gently but firmly, making him stop.

"I'm here, what happened?"

He frowned and shook his head slowly, looking like he was about to pass out or throw up. Maybe both. Probably both. But he stayed quiet for a little longer, mulling things over in his head. As Riku thought about what he wanted to say, I noticed there were these... scratch marks all over his face, like someone had just gone after him and clawed him up.

The deep red gashes were mostly around his mouth.

It was like… someone... had tried... to rip his skin off. And had succeeded, to a point. He looked like he would be having a hell of a lot of scars, really deep scars, from what they had done to him. But it was his eyes that tipped me off that something horrible had really happened. They... it was like a light had suddenly gone dark in them. When we were talking in his kitchen, there was this arrogance and pride in his belief that he was laying my brother to rest tonight. It had made him calm even when he was angry. It was purposeful, too. Now... he just... _looked_ at me. He was hollow. Empty. Confused and... whatever light that was, it was _gone_.

He looked like a little kid who had suddenly lost everything and for some reason, it was that resemblance that made him more likely to trust me. He allowed himself to be touched now, even leaned into my hand like he needed to be touched. He was shaking. He couldn't stop shaking. His trembling hand reached out and his fingers hooked around mine, squeezing them tightly as if he was making sure I was really there.

I didn't know what scared me more: seeing Riku be like this or knowing that there was something on the island that had driven him to this state.

"I… I saw… Sora…" Riku whispered after a moment and then I saw his eyes fill up with tears. He didn't even bother to try to hide them. It twisted my stomach into a knot watching him cry without shame. It was like he didn't even know they were coming out or… like he didn't care.

It hurt him, it hurt him to know that my brother had… seen him. The words finally clicked into place and made sense.

No… it couldn't be… Had... Had Sora… _attacked_ Riku…?

I leaned in and put my hands onto his shoulders, holding him a bit so he could look at me properly. His eyes rolled around in his sockets like he had suddenly lost control of the muscles that made them stay focused.

"Riku… I need you to tell me that again," I said quietly, unable to believe it. He couldn't have. Riku couldn't have seen Sora. Sora couldn't have attacked him! But Riku just let out a weak sigh and continued to cry.

"Sora tried to kill me…" He repeated and then he paused, looking up at me in confusion. For the first time, he managed to concentrate on me long enough to really notice it was me sitting there by his side. Riku's eyes narrowed suspiciously as he watched me.

"… Wait… you... you weren't the one who c-called me... where's… Axel?"


	20. Part Twenty: Remembering

**I can say honestly that this is the longest chapter I've done so far for this story. It's... a little... different... on Axel's behalf, for reasons you'll see later. Anyway, I'll just attach a general warning and ask that if you're a little sensitive, go get some tissues. Thank you and please review.**

**Disclaimers: Kingdom Hearts is not mine, and if the creators could see what I can do to their characters, I think they'd punch me. Or just scold me and call me a bad fangirl. Heh.**

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**Part Twenty: Remembering**

That stupid fucking idiot!

I barely felt the ground underneath my feet as I charged through the street, looking for one stupid ass silver headed punk. Even as I cursed viciously under my breath and shouted his name out every couple seconds, I couldn't help but feel uneasy. There was something wrong. Something… off. Something…

Bizarre.

As I grabbed a streetlamp and used my momentum to swing around it and charge off into another direction, I realized what it was. No one was answering. Not a one. Not one person was looking out their window to see why some punk ass kid and then me were yelling and screaming.

No one was watching us. We were alone.

"Riku!" I shouted over and over as I ran past the crossroads in the middle of the island. You could get anywhere from that path, since there were only four roads stretching from each of the cardinal direction. It was down this path that Riku had walked toward the elementary school. "Riku, where are you?!"

He wasn't answering me. Dammit! I ripped my phone out of my pocket and scrolled down my contacts to get Roxas' number. Hell if I cared if he would help look for the idiot, but he damn well not let Xion out here! On the second ring, he answered.

"Anything?" He whispered back in a hushed voice, like he was trying to keep someone from hearing. Knowin' him as well as I do, I knew for a fact that Xion was probably sitting next to him and he was trying to protect her. He was a good big brother and she never really figured out all the things he kept from her. "Did you find him?" Roxas stated a little more insistently, probably knowing that I was losing my focus while I ran.

Damn attention span and damn shadows moving around everywhere! I couldn't see a damn fucking thing! I could have already passed him and not known it!

I shook my head before remembering: _'Derrr, I'm on a phone and Roxas can't see me! Hahahahaha,'_ and all that. "No," I growled back in a harsher voice than I meant to give him. He stayed quiet for a moment, making my stomach churn from mild guilt.

Now normally, Roxas never shut up. He had one hell of a mouth on him and a temper to match it, plus a protective streak a mile wide. That's how we met in the first place, when I was a lot younger and he had decided that his new neighbor was lonely. I was almost twenty and he was fifteen now. Nearly seven years we'd been friends, all from an eight year old who thought his thirteen year old neighbor needed a friend. It was only later that I found out about his brother and started helping him get over it. Gave him another brother, if I thought about it in a sappy way. That was the whole reason we had been so hyped about the stupid experiment. To say good bye and all that, but that Rox could show his brother's spirit that he would never forget 'im.

But… He'd had enough to deal with without me yelling at him and stuff. Man, I felt like a jerk.

"He's not on the street, get Kairi and look for 'im, and don't take Xion," I said instead of apologizing. A low chuckle said that the kid had gotten the hidden message. I heard Roxas shout at Kairi to come with him and a soft click as he hung up. Smirking, I shoved my phone back in my pocket and kept shouting for Riku to come out.

There was something wrong, something very wrong with how the little fuck wouldn't answer. It was nothing but silence as I charged past the empty shops. No one went out and no one bothered answering. It was grating on my nerves like a knife against my skin; in all of the years that I lived here, most of the islanders would have rushed out and joined in the search… if this had been in the _day_.

Were they all scared of the night?

As sudden as the thought came to me, the sudden sick realization that there was something frightening that I couldn't understand affecting the older islanders, I became aware of a noise behind me. I ran down the street shouting at Riku to come out and to stop playing games… and listening to the sound at my heels.

It was something familiar, something familiar that had become…

I had a flash of memory, something that had happened when Roxas, Xion, and I were kids. Roxas had gotten the big idea of charging after me down the street as I ran away with one of his toys. He nearly got hit by a car like, three times but he had dogged my heels for almost a mile to get his teddy back until I stopped. That incident was one of the many reasons his mom didn't like me and how he got the bright idea he could join track. But that happy little day gave me another memory, something that was coming back right now. The slap-slap-_slap_ of his school shoes, since he'd stopped wearing those kinds of loafers as he'd gotten older, had remained forgotten until now.

There was a little kid running after me.

I jerked to a stop and whipped around just in time to see the little boy slam into my legs and bounce off. A sharp yelp came out of his mouth as he flopped to the ground and clutched his nose. I stared at him in shock as he rubbed at and wiped tears from his eyes, whimpering all the while he touched his face. What the hell?!

"_Ooooooooowwwwwww_!" He wailed in surprise.

I looked at the kid for about five seconds before crouching down in front of him. Instinct quickly took over. "You okay, little guy?" I asked in concern as I put my hand on his dark brown hair. I looked him over, checking for any blood as I patted his hair. He hadn't landed that hard or scraped up his butt that bad but from the way he was whimpering, I couldn't be sure.

He looked up at me and I saw a very familiar face peeking through his fingers. My hand dropped away as I saw Roxas' face, Roxas as a child, peering up at me.

The little boy inhaled softly through his mouth, like he was trying to calm himself down. He stayed sitting down but when his hands fell away from his face, I could see more and more of his siblings in him. The same dark blue eyes, the same mouth that was quick to smile, and the soft cheek bones – like Xion's – that made him look even more like a little kid than he already was. The only difference was that he had a shock of brown hair that more closely matched Xion's and Roxas' father than their fair haired mother.

Holy fucking shit, I had just found... No… way…

"Hi…" The boy said reluctantly, like he didn't want to speak to me at all. As I stared at him, I watched him slowly start pulling away from me. There was an expression in his eyes that was… older than the body he had. Like the eyes of an adult instead of a little boy that had been kidnapped and probably killed when he was six.

I couldn't help but put my hand back on his head and ruffle his hair playfully. Maybe it was because he was scared of me or because he obviously didn't want to touch me, but the instinct to try to make him smile again was too strong. It was looking at Xion – he was slightly too quiet to be the overactive Roxas – and watching her be sad and lonely. It just about broke my heart and it made me want to comfort him.

Sure enough, he smiled shyly at me.

"Hey there," I said back, dropping into the soft and calming voice that I used for the little kids we used in psych class for research. Sora blinked at me and looked at me cautiously before turning away, obviously still not quite trusting me. Ghost kids apparently were just like regular little kids. Only dead, I guess. "Um… you alright?" I asked next.

He nodded and lifted his head bravely, the sparkle of attitude reflecting much more of his brother than before. I grinned. Feeling better about not hurting him – could I even hurt a ghost? – I reached for his hands and lifted them up to the dim light of a streetlamp.

They were covered in this dried liquid that reeked of iron. But they were warm to the touch, like I was holding the hands of a living boy.

"Do you want a present?" He asked reluctantly instead of answering. I blinked and suddenly remembered that he was dead. Sora looked away from me after asking and shook his head in a slow, angry way. His hands started to shake in mine. "You don't have to take it. You can go home now."

Alright, I was talking to a ghost and living an urban legend. Totally not the weirdest shit I had done _ever_. My hands tightened around his, preventing him from moving just as he started to stand up. Sora blinked in surprise and looked back at me, obviously startled.

I flashed him a grin.

"Oh, I want the present, Sora," I declared. Sora's face immediately fell and a dark expression took the shy smile's place.

"No, you don't, Lea," He snapped back and wretched his hands away from me. My jaw dropped as he said the name I had been born with, a name I had long since abandoned. A sly, almost cruel smirk took the place of the cheerful little smile he'd had. He knew that. Somehow… he knew that was my name.

I never told anyone. From the day I set foot on this dinky island, I was called Axel.

How did he…? Wait just a second. _**The legend**_. God, I was stupid! The legend said that after you turned around and saw the Little Spirit – totally done that, he even smacked into me! – he would offer you a gift. That was your first chance to run. He would give you a couple more… But everyone agreed that he would show you your worst nightmares and memories in order to stop you from accepting.

He'd just said one: the name that I had abandoned along with my old life in Twilight Town and Radiant Gardens.

The boy glared at me, his mouth setting into a hard line as I grinned at him. Oh, now he was pissed. He looked just like Roxas when he was pissed. I shook my head and laughed right in his face, even making him flinch back in anger.

I was starting to freak him out.

"Sorry, but if you know my real name, it's not that big of a deal," I said calmly, humming softly as the little boy turned away from me and folded his arms across his chest. He shook his head right back at me and there was this sad look in his eyes now, like he was doing something he didn't want to do.

Tears started trickling down his cheeks and a low whimper came out of his mouth as he rubbed his face hard with his white school-shirt sleeve. He screwed his face up as he tried not to cry any further. One more time, he shook his head at me, begging me not to keep going.

I wrapped my hands back around his wrists and asked again for the present.

I didn't know why I kept asking. All I knew was that Roxas' brother was real, that the little boy had answers to my best friend's questions. I knew that he would be able to stop Xion's fear. To help her stop being afraid. That was something I wanted more than anything, for that smile to be on that little girl's face permanently.

I wanted Xion to be happy and for Roxas to be able to let go.

His head snapped and twisted to the side like someone had suddenly taken a sledgehammer to his neck.

A low dark laugh emerged from the boy's mouth as he began to whisper with a voice like someone stoking up embers. That crackle-crackle-_crackle_-_**crack**_ when a fire started. That low hissing ache that echoed just before a massive fire that killed thousands. He demanded questions from me, repeated things from deep inside of me that I had never wanted anyone to know. The voice shifted, contorting with the shadows as he spoke. He revealed that he knew of all the things I had ever done in Twilight Town, of the best friend I had left for dead, and the reasons why I followed behind my friends so closely.

He mocked me for wanting to protect people when I was the one that they should be running from.

I had… I had left Isa… behind… I didn't _mean_ to… I… thought he was right behind me. It wasn't my fault… We had been running around in these old tunnels, the tunnels underneath the city. They'd been abandoned twenty years before cause of all the fatalities in their building. Everyone said they were haunted. I remembered it as one of the last days I was happy in Radiant Gardens. We had… we were pretending to be explorers. Ghost-hunters, like I was pretending to be tonight. Isa had trusted me with the lantern we'd stolen from his father's shop. And… I left him when the tunnel collapsed.

He had no light for days, nothing except just a few stars that managed to shine through a crack just about his head as he remained pinned underneath the rubble.

Isa had been found later, long after I had run away in fear that we would get in trouble for exploring the old castle's secret passageways. Half-dead from lack of water. I wasn't the one who first reported him missing. I had stayed silent.

Isa never told anyone that he hadn't been alone that day.

The Little Spirit whispered into my head, sharing other secrets and memories with me that I hadn't even known that I had. He revealed my reasons for being Roxas' friend, my need to pretend that Isa was still my friend and that I had never left him behind. My pathetic need… to be… _**needed**_… He revealed… _darker_ reasons for me to want to protect Xion.

It was with a high-pitched giggle that he told me that I was a pedophile.

He proved that he knew what I did at night, of those miserable nights where I cried myself to sleep and of the nights I ended up drinking myself to a stupor to make sure I didn't cry. His fingers danced up and down my arms like a lover's teasing touch as he described all the emotions and memories that had turned me into what I was now. They burned against the old razor scars. They burned against the stomach I refused to fill. He revealed the gang I had once ran around with Twilight Town and the way I had easily broken people just to prove that I could. I could hear the cracks and snaps of all the hands and legs I had destroyed beyond repair. I could hear the pleading girls as my knife flashed against their skin and my cold voice demanding their purses. As the boy spoke, his breath was warm against my skin as he climbed into my lap and whispered the darkness right into my ears.

When I started to cry from remembering how I got them and why I had done what I had, he only laughed.

His golden eyes glittered as he spoke and he asked if I wanted to go away now. I told him no. I asked him one more time for the present he kept denying me. I… I was scared. How did he know all this? How… how could he know all these things about me? I… I never told anyone! I never told anyone about them! I never told anyone about Isa, I never told anyone about why I had befriended Roxas as a teenager, I never told a damn fucking person about the attraction I felt toward Xion and why I kept her as distant from me as possible, I never told a fucking soul about any of that shit from my past!

How… how did… he…?

After a few minutes where he ripped out my heart and showed me all of its disgusting, nasty, broken pieces, the little boy stopped. He asked one last time if I wanted to refuse his present. As he said those last few words, his voice changed again. It went back to being like his brother's, like the sweetness of his sister when she smiled. It went back to being sad.

I said I wanted it.

I didn't know why I said that I wanted it, only that I needed to get it and stop him from showing me anymore. I didn't want to see anymore. I didn't want to remember what a bad fucking person I was. Those images in my head were enough. The twisted remains of my heart were enough to remind me of the times I had come close, just so damn close to lighting that match and ending it all.

Sora's face fell one last time before nodding reluctantly in agreement. He put his arms around me, hugged me close like he hadn't just been tearing me to shreds, and he let me hold him back. I couldn't see from tears blurring my visions. There was only one last question before the little spirit started to cry.

"Who do you want your ribbon to go to? It has to go to someone you love."

My answer was whispered into his ear, soft and gentle like the little boy's sister had once been. "Xion, give it to Xion."

His hand tightened in mine as he nodded.

When I looked into my arms again, to make sure that the little boy was still there, that I hadn't been going crazy, he was gone. Vanished like he had never existed. Like the little ghost he was, Sora had disappeared. I closed my eyes and fell back into the road, collapsing just as I heard the whispers enter my head.

'_**F…f…fri…en…d….ne…ew….fr…ie…nd….'**_

When Roxas, Riku, and Kairi found me again, I was listening to the delighted laughter coming from the shadows.


	21. Part Twenty-One: Eavesdropping

**The review button is feeling lonely... Read and review, please?**

**Disclaimers: Kingdom Hearts is not mine, though the idea is. Who knows, I may just develop this further when it finishes and publish it. :)**

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**Part Twenty-One: Eavesdropping**

_**Didgood, you'vedonewell!**_

Giggles in my ears, knowing what I had just done but the images of the man's life that I had no right to look through still flashed through my mind. The grim knowledge of knowing his heart and soul, the thoughts that made him think he was a horrible person made me feel sick to my stomach. Hysterical laughter as I watched the man lying in the middle of the road.

I thought maybe he was listening.

Watching as his friends came to get him, woke him up from his dazed state. The boy with the blond hair bent down and hugged him as tight as humanely possible. Lea grabbed him too, pressed his face to the boy's as he began to cry and explain that he had taken my gift. From the way he held onto the boy, I thought I could tell that he almost never cried in front of people. The boy stroked his hair, whispered soothingly to him like his words were a lullaby, let him cry into his shoulder when they started to help. I wished I could hear them. A girl with red hair and the boy she was half-dragging behind her spoke quietly, demanding answers that he didn't have.

They called him Axel. He called them Roxas, Kairi, and Riku respectively; he spoke mostly to Roxas. The name tasted like acid on my tongue. I kept laughing because they didn't peek into the shadows. They couldn't see me.

They didn't find the golden eyes staring at them, waiting for Axel to be alone again.


	22. Part Twenty-Two: Crack

**"'Cause this is fiiiilllllleeeeer! Filler night! Got too much homework and not much to write! So this is _filler_! Yeah, filler nights!" *zombie dance***

**Disclaimers: "Thriller" and Kingdom Hearts are owned by Michael Jackson and Tetsuya Nomura (that's him, right? The creator?) respectively. I just have a really stupid joke about it. Please read and review!  
**

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**Part Twenty-Two: Crack**

Axel didn't want to talk when he got back to the house.

Riku didn't want to talk either. He was too beat up, too freaked out by what he had seen, to say much to anyone besides Kairi. The little he did say was to call off the experiment indefinitely and warn Selphie that if she published anything that had happened or talked about it on the radio, he would flay her within an inch of her life.

After looking over the massive bruises and bloody cuts all over his face, she agreed.

My brother took the time to ask both Axel and Riku if they'd be willing to talk tomorrow, and if not tomorrow, the day after. At the idea of sunlight, both guys agreed and said that they would be fine in the morning. Riku then took Selphie and Kairi home, while we took Axel.

Axel started talking the minute that everyone else left.

"Poppet," He whispered in a harsh voice as Roxas put his arm around him and started half-carrying him home. I looked up at him but only saw a ghost of his usual teasing smile. He looked beaten. Like someone had just ripped him apart and this was only the empty shell of my friend. I reached up and put my hand on his cheek, letting him hold onto my arm as we walked down the street.

His fingers were shaking.

"I saw your brother," Axel said in a confidential voice and then he looked at Roxas curiously. At the mere mention of Sora, Roxas tensed up and then started shaking in excitement. Our dear pyro smiled again, that ghostly, broken smile before putting his finger to his lips. "I'll explain tomorrow. Can… can you guys sleep over?"

Roxas and I glanced at each other, startled by the request. Axel never asked us to sleep over. There was no point, since our mom hated his guts and because well, I was a girl. Our dad would never allow it. But the way he had asked, the quiet little voice he had asked was something he'd never used on us. It was broken. Hurt. In absolute pain. Begging for us not to leave him alone.

For the first time in the almost seven years that we'd known him, Axel was afraid.

"Yeah, we'll sleep over," Roxas said immediately without even bothering to call our parents.

I sighed in disbelief; for all we knew, Dad was already on his way to the electronics store or was waiting for us there. Bro never thought this stuff through. We didn't have our clothes, we didn't have our toothbrushes or toothpaste, and we didn't have anything else for a sleepover. Where were we going to sleep? Was Axel going to pull out his couch bed or not? Did he have an extra bedroom? How was Roxas going to sweet talk our parents into letting us stay over?

Guys. Never thought _anything_ through without a girl to help.

"Xion?" Axel asked next, snapping back to reality. He was looking at me funny, like he was expecting… oh. My answer. I shrugged and nodded, making him immediately relax. Just from me promising, he looked happier. More alive. "Thanks," he muttered darkly before turning away rapidly.

His hand suddenly dropped from my arm and Axel pulled his head away from my hand.

I stared at him in surprise. Alright, sure, Roxas definitely was a lot closer than I was to Axel, but we were still best friends, right? What had gotten into him? … Just… just what had Sora done to him? As I watched him, scared over what he might have been thinking.

After a few minutes, Axel turned back and put his hand on my cheek. "I'll explain to you tomorrow, Poppet," He promised again before nudging Roxas in the side. "Hey, I can walk by myself, you know," He told my brother who frowned at him and then glanced down at his boots as if checking to make sure that they could move.

"But –" Roxas started to protest but Axel shook his head and pulled away in defiance.

Almost immediately, his legs wobbled and he collapsed to the floor. When we both dove for him, ready to pick him back up and drag him to his feet, he slapped our hands away and wrapped his arms around himself. A low, weak whine came out of his mouth as he sat there in the darkness below us, keeping his head bowed so we couldn't see his expression.

"He showed me things…" Axel whispered quietly, as if he was talking to himself. A hard shiver ran down his spine as he hugged himself that much tighter. "He showed me… _**horrible**_… things… Things I never wanted to remember… He made me see them all over again…"

"Axel…" I said to him, putting my hands on his shoulders. At my touch, he stiffened and I heard a strange noise come out of his mouth. Almost a half-gasp and a half-whimper, really. He kept shaking, even when Roxas bent down on one knee and hugged him around the shoulders.

"Horrible things… he said _**horrible**_ things…" Axel repeated as he leaned into both of us, grabbing us by the hands as he began to cry. My heart twisted in my chest and I looked at Roxas helplessly, begging for him to do something. My brother just shook his head and held on tighter. "I don't know how he knew… he knew horrible things about me…" Axel said again but he started laughing now, a high-pitched terrified laugh.

He turned his head toward me and I could see the despair in his eyes for the first time. He was scared. Axel was crying and for the first time in seven years, Roxas and I had no comfort to give him. The twisted smile on his face said that he knew that too.

"I gave you the ribbon," Axel told me before clinging that much harder to us, like he was afraid that if he let go, he would never see us again. "I gave you the ribbon, Xion… I don't know what it is… only that… it was for something horrible… something that I did… _**he showed it to me**_…"

Roxas pressed his forehead against Axel's as he began to cry in sympathy. He kept stroking our friend's hair, like he was trying to reassure him that we were still here with him. "They're not real, Axel, whatever he showed you wasn't real," He promised quietly but Axel shook his head, denying it. He thought they were real. I didn't know what scared me more, that Axel – the big, strong Axel that had been our fearless leader for so many years – had been terrified or that his fear was so bad that it had even made Roxas start to cry.

Axel stopped talking after that. He stopped being able to even see that we were right next to him. All he could see was his own despair… that, and the shadows around us.

It wasn't until we had managed to drag him home – one arm over my shoulder and one over Roxas' – that he had started to focus again. The whole time his head kept whipping around, checking one direction and then another, looking for something only he could see. Every few minutes he would let out that horrible noise again. He would burrow closer to me and then flinch before turning to Roxas and huddling next to him.

Roxas barely managed to open the door before Axel ripped himself free and threw himself into the hallway. He curled up by the door, trembling in a corner as we let ourselves in. My brother told him that he was going to make him some hot cocoa but he didn't react. He didn't react at all, not even when Roxas started pulling off his boots for him.

"Take his jacket," He told me after lining our shoes up in a row on a little shelf one of Axel's older friends had given him for his collection of black boots. Our school shoes looked weird next to his combat boots. I nodded and bent down next to him, humming soothingly as I slowly unzipped my friend's black jacket.

"Open your hands and clap them close," I sang to him, humming an old song that one of my brothers had made up when he was little. I could never remember if it had been Sora or Roxas to make up the tune, only that you sang it to the Hokey Pokey song. My hands slid down his collar and started helping him shrug off his cloak. "Open 'em up and then slam 'em closed, open them up and smile real bright-!"

Axel reached up and grabbed my shoulders, yanking me into his body before I could even shout or react to what was going on. Pulling me into his lap, he buried his face in my throat and shuddered hard. "Can you hear it?" He demanded quietly as he wrapped his arms around my waist.

I froze for a moment, freaked out by what had suddenly happened.

He… what was he doing? What did he think he was…?

Axel let out that horrible noise again and pressed his face harder into my throat. "Please tell me you can hear it," He begged, sounding like a little kid terrified of the dark and asking for his mother or maybe older sister to check under the bed for monsters.

I listened for a few seconds but all I could hear was the very faint noise of Roxas rummaging around the kitchen. A clanging noise as he dropped something. Probably a pan or a pot.

I shook my head no and Axel clung that much harder.

"What can you hear, Axel?" I asked next but he just shivered and started chuckling quietly to himself. The noise was even worse than the whining noise, like he had suddenly lost his mind and was five seconds away from snapping and murdering everyone around him.

He answered after a few minutes of laughing. "Sora," He whispered into my ear softly. I felt his mouth shift against my neck, a sudden weak smile. Axel chuckled a little more, though it was now his normal, calm laugh when he got a little too nervous.

"I can hear Sora laughing at me."


	23. Part Twenty-Three: Delusions?

**Part Twenty-Three: Delusions?**

He was sleeping now.

Axel was finally sleeping now.

He had stopped crying.

I carefully pulled the mug away from his hand so that he wouldn't burn himself if he started moving around. Head on the table on his arm, my best friend finally looked like he was at peace. The cocoa worked like a charm, as usual.

"Sis?" I asked as my sister looked up from her own glass – Axel only had two mugs, since we accidentally broke his third one last week – and nodded sleepily to show that she'd heard. "You think we should go?" I pulled my jacket off and draped it over Axel's shoulders, almost laughing as he shifted around and got his hair tangled in the zipper.

Very gently, I combed his stupid red locks through my fingers and off the metal teeth.

Xion shook her head slowly. "No… Axel's scared out of his mind, Roxie," She said honestly enough, nodding to the way he was curled up on his chair.

Normally, Axel was a big stickler for posture, since one of his parents had back problems or something. Right now, he was hugging his knees to his chest and was bunched over on the table. If I had tried something like that, he would have slapped me upside the head and demanded to know what I would do when I was old and needed surgery just stand up.

Xion sighed softly and gently started pulling her hand from our friend's death grip. "We should stay here with him," She said as Axel suddenly started to stir, moaning softly as his fingers lost the warmth of her touch. He automatically started looking for it, his hand rummaging around the table for hers.

When he started to cry out in that weird weak gasp/sob that he kept doing, Sis placed her hand onto his palm; he immediately gripped it as hard as he could. Xion winced but Axel, naturally since he was asleep, didn't notice and just pulled her in closer. She looked over at me meaningfully, raising an eyebrow. I instantly got the message.

Axel had never done something like that in his life. He was too unstable to leave alone.

"I'm going to go get his bed ready before Mom starts calling –" I started to say just as my phone started to ring in my pocket. … That was fast. Xion sighed and started poking Axel awake, shaking him as I pulled the phone out and pressed the talk button. "Hey, Mom…" I answered in a mock cheerful voice.

"_Roxas, where are you?! Your dad just called me and said that you weren't at the store!" _

I adjusted the phone on my ear just as Axel spluttered awake and demanded to know why the hell he'd been on the slopes of Christmas Town in only his boxers. "Mom, we're staying at Axel's; I'm too scared to go home," I lied in a purposely warbling voice, like I had been crying. Xion glared at me, obviously pissed that I had just done that. But she didn't say anything, only focused on Axel and kept soothing him.

Mom's voice paused only for a moment before she answered. _"Oh, Roxie, I'll come get you, don't worry, baby,"_ She promised with a soft whimper, like she was terrified of what I had seen. Oh, _sure_, like I had seen in any way, shape, or form anywhere near to what Axel saw.

I wasn't the one freaked the hell out by something a ghost had forced him to see.

"No, Mom, it's fine… don't come get us," I said firmly. Mom started protesting, saying that I needed to come home and that it was just next door. That she could get me in less than five minutes and get me to bed as soon as possible. Dammit, I wasn't going to let Axel stay here alone! "No, I want to stay with Axel, please just let me stay here!"

She didn't speak for about a minute before asking me if I was sure.

"Yes, I'm sure. I'll be okay. I'm already about to fall asleep on the couch."

I couldn't help but notice that when Mom said good night, she only asked me to sleep well and to have good dreams. To call her if I got too scared and she would be over immediately. There was no mention of my sister. Even when she hung up with one last protest for me to come home, Mom didn't ask about Xion.

"Everythin' alright?" Xion asked curiously as she helped Axel up, making him stand up and look her in the eye to make sure he hadn't hit his head or something. I nodded before slamming the phone shut, shoving it angrily into my pocket. What the fuck? What was this? How did I not notice this before? "Roxas, Axel's falling asleep again," Sis commented as he put his hands on her shoulders and she started to lead him into the living room.

"Sis," I said quietly. "How long has Mom hated you?"

Xion froze in mid-step, making Axel stumble to a stop and then turn around to glare at me. "Roxas, say that one more time and I'll beat you," He snapped, suddenly reverting back to his normal, angry self. Oh, _now_ he was awake. He rubbed his eyes hard, forcing himself to wake up a little more, before putting his arms around her. "She doesn't hate you," Axel promised softly.

"Yeah, I know," She said immediately, but her voice didn't sound like she really believed it. "Let's go to sleep now."

We all quietly walked into the living room and Axel folded out his couch bed. I got some extra blankets and when we were all comfortable, Sis turned off the lights but left one lamp lit near Axel. He curled up in the middle of the bed and we got in on different sides, hugging him tight when he started shaking.

I turned on another light.

Unsurprisingly, Xion was the first one asleep.

"Roxas… can you feel Sora?" Axel asked the minute she was asleep. I turned over onto my stomach, trying to see his face. To see what he was thinking, to see his expression. But he had his back toward me, facing my sister instead. I watched as he reached up and started tucking her in. "I can… he's in the corner."

I sat up and looked into each of the corners, checking for a little boy in a white button down and blue and white plaid shorts. But there was no one there. Absolutely nothing, either. Axel didn't usually leave stuff in the corners, not even coat racks or anything. He left all those in the hallway because, like he said, it got cluttered and annoying to clean up.

The only thing weird was a particularly big shadow in the corner closest to the door.


	24. Part Twenty-Four: Friends

Part Twenty-Four: Friends

The boy looked right at me but he didn't see me.

Of course he couldn't see me. Only Lea could, now. I could feel him watching me.

I wonder when he was finally going to be alone?

I needed him to be alone. If not… I couldn't take him away. But the girl asleep in his arms was there and so was the boy who was looking around. They were keeping him away from me. They were keeping him from being taken away.

I couldn't give Xion her present until Lea disappeared.


	25. Part Twenty-Five: Hiding

**Alright, I promise that the next chapters will get the story moving along a little better. This is the last... come on, people, you know this one! **

**"FIIIILLLLLEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEER~! Filler nights! Come on, one more chapter and then the story'll be alright! Cause this is -!" **

***bricked***

**Ahem. Disclaimers still apply: KH and Thriller do not belong to me. Story's mine though.**

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**Part Twenty-Five: Hiding**

I could feel him.

He was sitting next to me… sitting next to me, his hand on my mouth. Even with my friends sleeping beside me, I could feel him there. His soft breath tickled against my neck as that little body bent down over mine, whispered deep into my ear.

"I'm in your bedroom," He sang softly and the noise buzzed in my head like they had suddenly broadcasted static right into my skull. "I'm in your bedroom, you can go ahead and _hide_…! But if you're not fast enough, I'll catch you and I'll win…!"

He was daring me. He was challenging me to a game, some game that had rules I couldn't understand.

My breath hitched in my chest as I felt him moving beside me, right where Xion was.

… P… please… Xion… wake up… he's…!

"I'm in your bedroom, wanna see what else I can do?" The ghost demanded and then I felt something being pressed against my lips. A hard sphere, like a marble. I resisted the gentle insistence, moving against it. No! I won't eat it, I won't eat it, whatever it is, that thing was _not_ going into my mouth! You can go to hell!

When I opened my eyes, I could see these gentle blue eyes staring back at me. Blue. Not gold. Not that harsh and vicious gold that broke my heart. Blue, blue like the sky. Blue like Xion and Roxas. Blue like the ocean. This time, I watched as the little boy popped a brightly colored – a red one, for some reason could distinctly see that it was a bright red one, like the color my hair was, even though it was dark – candy into his own mouth, unwrap a second from its sticky brown paper, and then press it again to my lips.

This time, for some reason, I let him slip it onto my tongue. It was… it tasted like…

… Damn, it was cold…

I burrowed closer to the nearest source of heat, pulling it towards my cold, cold skinny little body. Okay, maybe not little but I was definitely cold. Nuzzling into it, I found out that _somehow_, my crappy pillows got about, like a hundred times softer when I was asleep.

Voodoo witchcraft or was it…?

"A…_**xel**_…." A voice hissed in my ear just as I was curling up and hugging the source of heat. Wow, that sounded really close. Like I was… like, not even five inches away from the voice. "If you don't get out of there in _five_. _**Seconds**_. I'm going to murder you!"

Ah… it was the latter.

I finally got a girl into my bed.

Jerking up, I looked down just in time to see a very pissed off Xion glaring at me and covering up her… um… _assets_…? Aw hell. I got to second base… in my _sleep_?

"Well you're obviously feeling better, you pervert!" She snarled before my eyes automatically – I swear it was automatic, like the little bastards wanted to see just what I had been laying on – darted back down to her er, chest.

The next thing I felt was her hand slapping upside my head and sending my ass flying backwards into Roxas.

Spluttering awake and yelping as he tumbled out of bed, Roxas and I cracked our skulls on the bedframe and he slammed onto the floor. "Sis, what the hell?!" He growled back before jumping back to his feet and snatching a pillow from the bed. Before either of us could stop him, he flung it as hard as he could at her and sent her flying off the bed.

Okay, people needed to _stop_ fucking with my bed!

I grabbed Xion just as she got up and started to throw herself at her brother, picked her up, and tossed her over my shoulder. "Alright, you two, _**enough**_!" I yelled and immediately, they turned to glare at me.

Geez, the respect I get from these brats. You would never say that I _wasn't_ the oldest from the way they acted.

But sure enough, Roxas sat down quietly on the bed and nursed his aching backside while Xion fumed silently on my shoulder.

"You're touching my butt," was her only complaint but even that was subdued from her usual rage.

Let's just say that it wasn't the first time I had accidentally … er… well, to be blunt about it, _groped_ her, asleep or otherwise. She had learned to put up with my clumsiness. And frankly, I had learned to take the punches. The only thing that was weird was that Roxas usually leapt to her defense and went after me, too. When I glanced over at him, all he was doing was sitting there and looking up at me.

There was a dark look in his eyes, like he was afraid to come any closer.

"I am not," I said automatically to Xion before bending down, crouching next to the bed, and letting her off. She slid off my shoulder and flopped onto the bed with a quiet 'oof' and a kick to my thigh. I'd say it hurt but really, she didn't put any muscle into it. I rubbed my hair hard, staring at the two subdued kids in confusion. What the hell was wrong with them?

"Hey, did someone kick your puppy or something?" I demanded, folding my arms across my chest.

Roxas and Xion blinked before looking at each other in what was obviously shock. Okay, they were doing that twin thing again. I hated that twin thing. In unison, their jaws dropped and then Xion covered her mouth while Roxas openly gaped at me.

"_What_?!" I demanded but they just shook their heads at me.

"Axel, don't you remember what happened last night?" Roxas whispered quietly as if he was worried he would startle me or something. I stared at him and then thought for a moment.

Okay, let's see… We went to go get pizza. As good as it was, I didn't think that the freaked out looks that the twins kept sharing were because we had that awesome of a pie. Only Roxas was the food nut, not Xion. Xion was more of the fairy tale kinda kook… Er… so it wasn't the pizza. Okay. Then we went to Riku's house! Now I remembered!

"Did something happen at Riku's?" I asked but Xion shook her head at me and then sat up, taking my hand gently. Okay, that was not normal. She never tried to comfort me like that, I just didn't like it. What was wrong with her?

"Try again," was all that she would tell me.

But my mind was a blank. All I remembered after going to Riku's house and eating the pizza was…

A shrill laugh emerged in my ears, making me freeze and turn around to the corner. Wh… what was that? All I saw was this huge, black shadow curled around the door. But the lights were on. There shouldn't have been any shadows in the room, it was broad freakin' daylight.

Why was there a…?

I reached up and touched one of my ears, closing my eyes for a second as a memory started ghosting back into my head. A… a little boy… a little boy with Xion's eyes and Roxas' smile… looking at me… His… no… _**gold**_ eyes… not blue… but… the eyes had been blue, hadn't… they? I knew that they were _blue_! They _had_ to be blue, his siblings' eyes were all-!

"My head hurts…" I said in a soft voice; I barely recognized it as mine. After a few moments of the twins just staring at me and waiting for me to react, Xion reached up and pulled me into her, letting me drop down and put my head on her shoulder.

Why didn't I remember? Why didn't… My hands tightened around her waist as I fought to remember what I had seen last night. I knew that I saw something strange. Something bizarre and that it had… broken me. But I didn't remember it, I couldn't remember anything at all except…

I…

Pressing my hand to my mouth, I could taste this strange sweet-bitter flavor on my tongue. Like I'd been eating fruit or something but forgot to brush my teeth before going to bed. But it wasn't like anything I'd ever tasted before. It reminded me of a lot of things though. Mint, strawberry, sea salt ice cream, even the smell of a paopu blossom perfume that Xion sometimes wore when she had to go do something fancy…

Why… why couldn't I… remember…?

'Hide and seek, let's play hide and seek; if you win, you get to stay with your friends. If _**Iwinyougettocomewith**_**me**_!_'

That voice… that voice in the back of my head… why… did I know that voice…?

"My head hurts…"


	26. Part Twenty-Six: Strategy Master

**I meant to upload a chapter on Halloween but somehow between going to class and watching a movie with my friend, I ended up too depressed to finish it up. So here you go, about three days late. Sorry! To make it up, it's a nice long chapter. I hope it's not too filler-y! (That's not a word...)  
**

**Disclaimers: The idea is mine but the characters are not, not until I finish this up and convert it into my own original setting. Heh! Until then, the people I'm torturing belong to Tetsuya Nomura, Disney, and Square Enix.**

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**Part Twenty-Six: Strategy Master**

Voices… that voice… I could still hear them in the back of my head… whispering, talking to me, taunting me, tempting to go with him. I was being driven bonkers by that fucking voice, by the ghostly voice of a boy that had once been my friend.

If he wasn't already been dead, I would have killed Sora for this.

I rubbed hard at my ears, trying to dislodge his voice from my head. Even without turning around on my stool, the whispers reached me anyway. Those nagging voices, the people who supposedly cared about me, kept on waggling their tongues. They made their little expedition into my uncle's shop just to see if it was true.

All they wanted to see was if top-tier Riku had actually lost it.

'_Crazy. Lost his mind.'_

'_Seeing things that aren't there…'_

'_Talking to things that aren't there…'_

'_Never __**was**__ right in the head, not after Sora died…' _

Oh, sure. Like they knew about Sora. Even now, I could feel that stuff inside of me, _violating_ me as it wriggled its way down… Somehow, some way, I knew that Sora had summoned it up. That he had made it and that he had made it go inside of me. I shivered hard, even though it was still warm outside. The temperature hadn't dipped below ninety Fahrenheit but I was still cold.

My big comfy yellow jacket was being seen as another sign of my growing insanity.

Uncle was refusing to let people in unless they bought something. Every time someone came in and asked about me, he'd send them right out with a shout about how it wasn't polite to stare and that people should mind their own fucking business. Heh. If I didn't know any better, I'd say the old man had grown fond of me.

He sure did keep people away, though.

"Riku, go to the back if you're so cold; I'll turn the heater on for you," Uncle Haru said after a few more people 'bought' some radios and walked off with more stories to tell about yours truly. He had this disgusted face when he shoved their munny into the register, like he was handling dog crap or something, but his only concern was about me. From the look of it, Uncle wanted to close up shop and spend the rest of the day nursing me back.

I didn't know if I could be brought back.

I'd seen too much. Maybe I didn't want to go back.

Picking up a pad of paper, I wrote out a message to him.

"_No… it's alright,"_ I told him back and just huddled under my jacket and a tarp that Uncle had found on a shelf with some boat parts. My voice had been almost destroyed when I had tried to talk at home. The last time I had been able to do was when I was trying to get answers from Axel. When Kairi and Selphie managed to drag me home, they had gone straight for the doctor after I stopped being able to speak. He didn't know when I could talk normally.

No one knew.

Haru rubbed his hair hard, making the silvery stuff puff up and stick up on his head like – no! I shivered harder and pulled the tarp over my head. Dammit, make it stop… I wished that someone would make it _**stop**_…!

I choked, gagging on a phantom taste that wasn't even there. That stuff was gone but I could feel it, I could feel it moving around inside of me! I could taste the Darkness, taste its bitterness and its stench, and it had decided it liked me so much that it wanted to stay… God… I could still feel it. The tightening, tightening, tightening harder and harder until my head swam from the lack of oxygen and I started seeing black stars. They danced in my vision, blurring it. Obscuring it. I couldn't breathe. I couldn't breathe and I couldn't scream as I remembered how that Darkness started to move inside of me.

I felt it inside of my stomach, in my throat, in my heart.

"Riku!"

I looked up just in time to see Kairi and Selphie charge into the store, a lamp in each of their hands and a thousand glittering toys overflowing from bags on their backs. Girls…? I watched as they slammed the glass door behind them. The girls shoved useless electronics from their places on the shelves, and replaced them with…

A deep, low laugh that was nothing like my normal one ripped out of my throat as Kairi and Selphie started redecorating my uncle's store with glowing fairies and hearts.

"What the hell?!" Uncle Haru started to protest but the girls ignored him, only stopping for Kai to rip a glittery pink fedora out of her bag of shiny goodies and shove it onto his head. He stared at her and was startled enough to bend down and listen to her version of what she was doing.

I leaned in and started to grin.

Kairi was very serious as she scolded my uncle. "Mister Haru, this place is so dark and spooky, it's no wonder Riku's having panic attacks!" She snapped, folding her arms angrily across her chest as she glared at him. I'd forgotten how resourceful – and how nuts – she could be when she got going. Kairi waggled a finger in the air at the dusty room and then jabbed her thumb to me. "He needs light, lots of light, and since he won't leave the store, we're bringing it to him!"

She had the best logic sometimes.

After a moment, Uncle Haru sat down on the floor and just tipped his new fedora at the girls as they ran around the place and shoved their girly glitters everywhere. He'd apparently given up at the idea of making her change her mind. And I couldn't stop grinning.

The best part was when she pulled out the biggest, ugliest, son of a gun fairy the size of a watermelon and plonked it right there on top of the cash register. It was one hell of a monster, big fluttery eyelashes that moved in the breeze and a bright lavender tutu to top it all off. It even had glowing pink wings that threw light just about everywhere, even behind the counter. More like a disco ball than an ornament, really!

That was when Uncle Haru ran to the front of the store and locked the doors to stop anyone from getting inside.

Kairi and Selphie stepped back and admired their work. "Wow, it looks great!" Selphie cheered in excitement, clapping her hands together. The entire store was glowing pink, lavender, and white. _Great_ was not exactly the word I would have used for it but…

Barely able to contain her giggles, Kairi jumped over the counter and sat down on the floor next to me, pressing her hand to her mouth.

I grinned and put my hand on her head, holding up a pad of paper to her. I'd already written the message down_. "You have to see what I found on the wires."_

Her brow furrowed in mild confusion before her fingers touched her chest and then she looked up. "You mean the ones that we were wearing last night?" Kairi asked curiously. She still looked like she had no idea what I was talking about. I nodded and waited for her to get what I was trying to tell her. Come on, it wasn't that hard, just think about it a little. After a moment, a look of clarity came over and she slapped her hands together. "You never got them back from Roxas and the others!" Kairi declared in surprise.

Yeah, attagirl! Exactly!

I nodded and tapped the message again, insisting that she read it over one more time.

She leaned back into my palm, a little frown already appearing on her face. Looking around the glittering glow on every shelf in the normally darkish room, it was clear that she thought it was a bad idea for me to be chasing after what we had seen.

To be honest, I knew it was a bad idea. But I _needed_ to know. I wanted to know. What had attacked me? Why had it suddenly stopped? And… what had it done to Axel? He had practically been crying when we found him and he kept saying that he had gotten a ribbon, that he would be giving a ribbon to Xion soon. Had that been the gift? He kept saying that he got the gift from Sora.

If that was true, was that why Sora had suddenly stopped hurting me and disappeared? Because he had to go after Axel now?

There was something that just didn't add up… and somehow, it involved him.

Luckily for me, it didn't take long before a very worried Roxas showed up and started pounding at the door.

* * *

Axel had lost his memory.

Son of a _bitch_, Axel had lost his memory.

Despite how messed up he had been last night, how freaked out and just plain afraid of what he had seen, I could see that he was now completely fine. All he was really doing right now was staring at Kairi's watermelon fairy and smirking quietly to himself. There was no trace of the terrified man that Roxas and Xion had had to drag home.

He reached out and poked the fairy figure, making the lavender wings bounce back and shimmer ever-so slightly more purple.

How the hell was that fair?

"So uh… nice decorations you've got there, Riku," Axel said in a polite voice, like we hadn't been through something traumatizing together. As far as he was concerned, this was only the second time we'd ever talked to each other. He sat down on one of the stools and nudged Xion to scoot over, who was staring at me helplessly. She motioned to Axel and put her hands together in a praying motion.

Begging me to help him.

I ran my fingers through my hair as I booted up my computer again, letting the twins, Kairi, and Axel see what I was up to. On the side, I had my trusty pad of paper with some messages already written on it. _"After we went home last night, I remembered that I'd had connected the wires to a recording program on here,"_ I informed them by holding up the paper. _"I have all the audio from last night and the video from my walk, too." _

They all nodded, waiting for me to get to the point.

I pointed to the twins and Axel, running my hand down my chest purposely. _"You three never took them off. They recorded until they ran out of battery sometime this morning." _The trio glanced down at their lapels and in unison, pulled off their recorders and held them out to me. From the confused looks on their faces, they still had no idea what I was trying to tell them. Well, prepare to be amazed… I scooped them up and typed in my password, logging in while... wait…

A shadow moved behind Axel.

Like someone leaning in to get a better look.

Son of a bitch!

I threw myself to the other side of the room, backing away from the red head as fast as possible. It was there. Axel had the thing with him, it was there with him, it was here with me again, it was going to kill me! It was going to finish the job it started! I felt myself start to cry. My body started shaking uncontrollably as the memories of the tendrils circling his fingers, twisting and churning like living shadows moving inside of me ripped through my unconsciousness. I wanted to curl up and scream.

Please make him go away. Make him go away!

Someone's hands gently gripped my shoulders, making me open my eyes. I didn't even realize I had closed them. Axel made a few shushing noises in the back of his throat as he slowly pulled me away from the wall. Even though I kept shaking, even though I was still scared, I let him. For some reason I let him. He guided me to the stool I had been sitting on, picked me up, and dropped my heavy ass back onto it.

I kept shaking but my fingers somehow pulled up the editing program and started scrolling down the list of recordings. Each hour of audio had been separated into their own files for some reason. It made everything a little easier for me to listen to. There were only eight hours of audio from Axel's wire, compared to the ten or so minutes of video I'd gotten. To be honest when I first heard it, I was kind of happy that most of the audio was little more than Axel's and the twins' snoring.

There was one hour that was completely different.

A crackle of static opened up the audio file, like someone had suddenly turned on a broken TV or something. The next few seconds were distorted, broken, unintelligible even. Then it stopped. You could hear Axel's soft breathing instead. A little moan and then the bed creaking as he probably rolled over. Nothing different from the other eight hours.

And then the bed creaked again from someone suddenly putting their weight on it.

'_**I feel sorry for you….'**_ A voice whispered and the moment that the little boy's voice spoke, the wire crackled again. It was clear that it wasn't either Roxas or Xion, the two other people in the room. It was too high-pitched to be any of them. Axel mumbled something in his sleep, a passing line about how he was tired and couldn't they just let him sleep. He moved again and the bed springs creaked. _**'I feel sorry for you… so I'll give you a present… sleep tonight…'**_

Axel gasped on the audio, a noise like him trying to pull away from someone echoing behind the boy's words.

His voice was raspy and confused as he spoke. "Why… why are you…?"

'_**I feel sorry for you. You didn't know what you were doing…' **_

"Doing… doing what…? What… what is that…? What are you trying to…? Xi… Xion… wake up…!"

The next part suddenly made a lot more sense.

A low chuckle emerged from the tape, making Xion, Selphie, and Kairi huddle together for warmth as the spirit spoke. Even Roxas and Axel looked disturbed as they listened.

'_**This will help you forget… you can forget everything… and then when you wake up, You… won't… have to be scared… You'll be safe… for now... …'**_

"For _now_? What the _hell_ does he mean, 'for now'?" Axel demanded but I just put my finger over my lips, shutting him up as immediately as I would have if I had slapped him. I jabbed a thumb back at the still playing computer. It paused only for a few seconds before the voice spoke again.

On the recording, Axel spoke again, but this time in a sleepier, slurred voice.

"… P… please… Xion… wake up… he's…!"

'_**I'm in your bedroom, wanna see what else I can do?'**_ The ghost whispered back in a hoarse voice, like a swarm of bees had invaded his throat. The buzzing made all of us clap our hands to our ears, even me. I had heard it before, but the noise was too much, it hurt too much! Roxas started reaching out to the computer, probably to slam his fist through the screen.

All of a sudden, Axel's soft snores emerged from the speakers again.

He had fallen asleep again. Whatever the ghost had done, it had knocked him right out. And whatever it was, it had wiped all of his memories of the previous night. Zip. Nada left.

As everyone turned to him, we watched as Axel put a finger to his mouth and then frowned as if he was remembering something strange. He just shook his head no. "I… I don't remember that…" He said honestly enough. But he still started shaking, like he was unconsciously aware of it. "But… I wanted to know something," He turned to Selphie, a worried expression suddenly appearing on his face. "How long do I have left?"

"Four days is your max," Selphie said immediately before slapping her hand to her mouth in horror. The meaning of her little urban legend had suddenly become much too clear.

Axel had four days before he disappeared. None of the people that had reportedly gotten Sora's gift for their friends had ever been seen again afterward. There was a list of people from all over the island – mostly ranging from this part of the island, really – that had been claimed as his victims. Until now, I had always assumed that they had died by becoming trapped in one of the caves under the sand or even by drowning. That they'd never found the bodies.

But now… I knew that there must be something that might have taken some of these people away. A spirit or something, bringing them to a new place from which they had never been heard from again. No one knew if they died. The only thing they knew was that someone would bring a small length of ribbon to a named person from the victim. But no one knew where they went. No one had ever found the bodies.

And the red head standing in front of me was the very next person on that same list of missing people.

Roxas looked like he was about to pass out; Xion looked like she was about to cry. Axel just nodded and stood up, rubbing an obviously aching shoulder thoughtfully. "Believe in ghosts now, Riku?" He asked curiously, giving me a vague, cold smirk.

I grinned and just held up my next piece of paper.

"_Sure thing, but we have a way to beat 'im." _

Axel arched an eyebrow but leaned against the counter, watching me closely. He looked suspicious, as if suspecting some sort of trap. To be honest, I had been the one to get him into this mess, even if he didn't exactly remember what happened. It was only fair that I get him out of it… but it was completely understandable why he didn't trust me.

Still, it made me feel a lot better when he spoke up again. "I'm listening," He said softly, just as Roxas and Xion got up to grab his hands. From the terrified looks on their faces and his completely calm one, Axel was trying not to be upset. For their sakes. The twins clung to him in a way that I hadn't seen since they were five and freaking out because Sora was dragging them to kindergarten. It was that same fear, that fear of being left behind and irrationally believing that they would never see their beloved friend again.

Only this time, they were completely justified. And like hell I would let them lose someone else!

It was with a grim smirk that I wrote out my final message and slid it over to Axel.

"_We beat him at his own game; constant surveillance." _


	27. Part Twenty-Seven: Sealant

**What an odd little chapter. Anyway, to make up for being AWOL for a bit (and to procrastinate on the movie I'm supposed to be watching for class) I present this new chapter! *claps***

**Disclaimers: KH is not mine and the story is, therefore when I rewrite into a more coherent/novel state and sell it, the moneys will be all mine. HA!**

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**Part Twenty-Seven: Sealant**

About fifty strips of duct tape later and I had one completely covered window.

Heh. It was stupid but as I put the roll down, I couldn't help but feel kind of proud of my window. Now no one could watch Axel from his bedroom. Go me and all that. Anything to help my friend. To keep him safe. Speaking of which…

"Hey, Xion, what the hell's going on?" Axel demanded from his spot on the bed, where Riku had permanently banished him until the four days had passed. It had only been an hour or so but he was already going nuts.

I glanced down at him, peeking over the gaudy pink romance novel that Roxas had forced on him in order to get him to stop complaining. A girl having half her dress being torn off looked back at me with a coquettish smile, like she was inviting me to jump onto the page and join her in her little… 'Adventures.' No thanks. Axel stared at me in boredom, obviously not pleased with the choice in reading material.

Leaning against the wall, I started rattling off what Riku had written down to me. "Kairi's off putting rags in holes in the basement with Selphie, Roxas is taping up one of the other windows, and Riku's putting weights on all of the doors." Axel blinked once, twice, before sitting up and looking back down at his bodice ripper.

"And _you're_ here watching me," He mumbled in a deadpan voice, looking irritated by the mere idea. I nodded and sat back down on the floor, where I'd been staring at him before Riku threw me the roll of tape.

As much as he hated being stuck in here, I knew that it wasn't the whole problem. Axel was active, sure, running around like a maniac after us and the little kids that he talked to in his college classes and all that. But he seemed uncomfortable for some other reason. He didn't look at me, he wouldn't talk to me beyond asking every ten minutes what was going on, and focused intensely on that trashy book like it was his one lifeline to the world.

He _hated_ romance novels. They made him gag. It was something about the unrealistic nature… and how he usually got traumatized by descriptions of the men's… um… _things_ that pissed him off.

"Axel, are you okay?" I asked next but he just looked back down at the novel. He gave me a shrug before flipping the page.

"Yeah. Right now I'm in Ireland with the beautiful barmaid and we're about to have a raunchy good time," Axel mumbled back, frowning irritably. He turned another page. His eyes widened as he read a passage and then reread it with his finger running under the sentences. "Oh hey, looks like her sister's getting in on this action," He said in surprise, staring at the book as if it'd had suddenly thrown a spider at him.

To be honest, I never really expected much from a book that pink. Call me judgmental or something.

"Xion…" Axel suddenly said as he threw the book across the room. He sat up, watching it smack into a corner with a venomous smirk. After a moment, the look softened and he flashed a grin at me. "Mind getting someone to bring me something to eat? I'm hungry." He chuckled with a shrug, rubbing his stomach all the while.

I smiled and nodded. "Coming right up. Roxas' turn is up next anyway."

Riku's orders had been to not let Axel be alone, no matter what. But with all the stuff we were doing and the cameras that the boys had jammed into every room, surely he could be left alone for the two minutes it'd take me to heat up some pizza, right?

… Right?

The moment I stepped out of the room, I felt a cold chill run down my spine. Even when my brother ran in after me, I had felt something strange. Like someone had just brushed up against my arm as I left.

Those little moments, those little chills, kept on happening for the rest of the day. Axel was never left alone for an instant; when one of us went to go do something, another would take his or her place. Roxas had jumped into the room right after I left it to go get Axel's food. Kairi had watched him when Roxas left to go get dinner. Riku had the shift after that.

But the rotation of people wasn't what bothered me. It was what kept happening around us that freaked me out.

We all kept turns, silently making sure that no one stayed with the increasingly paranoid Axel for more than an hour or two. He started talking to walls, cursing at them, demanding answers to questions he hadn't even asked. Every now and then, or so everyone would tell me, he would drop down to the floor and pick up an object that they swore hadn't been there before.

A large blue marble, a little silvery-purple seashell, even a withered brown leaf that looked like it had come from the paopu tree outside of Axel's window. But it couldn't have, because I taped up the window. It wasn't even the time of year for the tree's fronds to be shedding yet. There was this strange noise coming from somewhere that we couldn't find. It sounded like someone humming.

At one point, when Riku was in the room with him and they were watching TV together, a black thing had been thrown at him. Axel had swiped it out of mid-air, only to discover that the object had been a large, crude knife. It cut his fingers deeply. But Axel hadn't minded the cut, only snarled at a shadow that 'he' was being an asshole.

He started laughing at random times, crying at others, and getting enraged for long hours before suddenly becoming happy again.

Axel stopped talking to anyone else but the shadows on the wall.

I'm scared.


	28. Part Twenty-Eight: L-I-S-T-E-N-I-N-G

**Now I promise next chapter is finally going to have a little action in it. Swear on it. **

**Disclaimers: Kingdom Hearts and all of its characters do not belong to me; the story does and one day (maybe) I'll rewrite this. For now, I just wanna finish it. Please read and review!:D**

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**Part Twenty-Eight: L-I-S-T-E-N-I-N-G**

He kept staring.

He kept watching.

He spoke to me whenever he thought he could get away with it. But his friends were listening, too, and they were getting more and more scared with every word that came out of his mouth.

I didn't know what else to do but to talk back. I continued to drive him insane.

_**It'sfunny, it'sfunny!**_

Lea's the first person to interact with me like this. It made me sad. Soon the first day would be over. Three more to go, if his friends kept shielding him like this.

They were pretty smart, actually. I can't take him away if he was with another person. The four days would pass like this, even with my interference.

_**Soclever… whatacleverlittlething…!**_

The knife cut his fingers. I felt a little sorry for that. Lea's blood splattered on the floor even as the silver-haired boy screamed. I could see the darkness inside of him, consuming him and twisting whatever was good in him. But it'd pass. He would be fine soon enough.

Lea told me his name was Axel now. I didn't mind that; that was a nice name, too. He told me about his friends even while they were in the same room as him. Their frightened eyes watched him as he told me about his life. I think he was trying to make me feel sorry for him.

All that really made me do was throw things at him. He almost tripped on my marble.

For some reason, Axel's stories made him laugh. Sometimes, he would stop in mid-sentence and ask me why no one else could see me. Didn't know what to say to that. I just smiled and asked him to keep going. If he kept going for a while, no one would notice but me. I liked stories. I liked listening to my friends.

But he would get angry.

Axel tried to jump into the wall once, trying to rip me out of my hiding spot even as his friend grabbed him and threw him into his bed. He stopped him from hurting me, it was funny.

It must be nice to have a friend like that. What was his name? Roxas? I liked that name for some reason. It sounded familiar. Even kind of nice. Axel didn't like it when I said that. He started screaming at me, warning me to leave his friends alone or else he'd kill me a second time.

_**Hedidn'tlikeitwhenIlaughedathim.**_

_**ButI'malways-**_

_**L**_

_**I**_

_**S**_

_**T**_

_**E**_

_**N**_

_**I**_

_**N**_

_**G.**_

_**Andhecan'tdoadamnthing.**_


	29. Part Twenty-Nine: Games

**Yay, I'm finally able to reveal my secret chapters! Double update today for you guys, I hope you enjoy this! :D**

**Disclaimers: Kingdom Hearts is not mine, but the story is.**

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**Part Twenty-Nine: Games**

"And I told him, I told Roxas that…"

Axel kept talking to the wall, getting increasingly more animated as he told a story of when I was about ten years old and how I needed to go to the doctor for an appointment and wound up hiding in a tree. Even when I tapped him, he ignored me and continued the story.

Axel… come on, buddy, why won't you answer me?

He shivered hard when I put my hand on his shoulder and shook it. For a moment, he stayed completely still, frozen by the sudden contact. Then he turned around and I saw his normal smile. "Hey, Roxas, when'd you get here?" Axel asked curiously, leaning against the wall he had just been babbling to. He rubbed his mouth and glanced over his shoulder again.

There was nothing but his shadow behind him.

"Uh…" No words wanted to come out. I didn't know what to say. What do you say to someone who's obviously going either crazy or seeing something you can't? I cleared my throat and put on a big smile, even if it felt completely fake. "Xion's making dinner, you want to eat?" I asked.

Seemed like words could come out after all.

Axel's expression darkened for a moment before he nodded and smiled again. It looked just as fake as mine felt. "S-Sure… Just… lemme finish up, okay?" With that, he turned back around and leaned towards his shadow. "Looks like I have to… you want to go, too?" He asked in surprise before holding out his hand toward the wall. He looked over his shoulder at me before yanking himself away, like something had been pulling him.

"Let's go." He snapped angrily, grabbing my wrist.

I could feel the bones in my arm creak with the force of his grasp but I just smiled and took Axel down the hall. The hallway never felt so long before. All I could really understand was the tightening of Axel's hand on my arm, like he was scared or just so pissed off that he needed to hold onto something or else he would explode. His eyes danced around me, looking at the walls, the corners.

But he kept smiling. Axel kept smiling.

I didn't know if that scared me more or if I was hoping he actually _did_ go crazy so that that little smile would be normal.

Xion wasted no time in sliding a plate of spaghetti to Axel the minute he sat down at the table. He looked up at her for a bit, just as he had when he stared at everyone when we walked in, but his eyes lingered for just a little longer. As if noticing it, my sister just smiled and chucked an extra meatball onto the pile of pasta.

"Thanks, poppet," Axel said immediately before dragging the plate closer. He stared into it like he was searching for the meaning of life, shrugged, and picked up his fork. For about three seconds, he was just happily slurping up his food.

The next second or so, Axel had already stood up and thrown Xion into the wall.

"_**AXEL**_!" Kairi, Selphie, and I screamed in unison, but he just stepped in front of my sister and scooped her up. Riku, the closest to the pair, stood up just in time to catch the first of three huge knives. The other two flew through the air, whipping past Axel's head and into the plaster. He stood completely still, frozen over the shaking figure of my sister.

He collapsed with her in his arms, pressing her close to him.

"Stop playing around. Please," Axel said quietly, though loud enough for the rest of us to hear him. He hugged Xion that much harder, shaking violently. "If you want to play a game, then we'll play a game with you. Just stop with this one."

For a brief second after that last word left his mouth, I swore that I heard someone laugh.


	30. Part Thirty: Hide and Seek

**... Crying warning in place right now!**

**Disclaimers: KH is not mine, the Ribbon is. Boo-ya.**

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**Part Thirty: Hide and Seek**

A game.

He wanted to play a game! I love games!

I watched as Axel walked around the table once, twice, three times before putting down a pad of paper. He pulled out a chair and waved a hand toward it. Oh! For me! It's for me.

I walked over to it, jumped into it, and looked down at the piece of paper. He started writing letters on it. I knew this song! A, B, C… I knew this song!

"Is this the game?" I asked the room, but none of the other kids could hear me. They just looked at Axel, shaking his head. The only one that didn't was the girl with the black hair. Her dark blue eyes just flickered around the room before falling onto me on the chair.

She couldn't see me. I knew she couldn't. But maybe she could feel me. Some people could do that. Lea could do it, but that was just cause I was going to take him away. She looked familiar. Did I know her?

I didn't remember her. But I was happy that we were going to play a game. It's been a long time since I've been able to play anything with anyone.

It was cold where I lived. No one wanted to play with me there. Maybe Lea… no… Axel could change that. Maybe he'd be my friend, too, like he was with all of these people. Maybe I could take someone else with me, too. Would that Roxas boy or that girl with the black hair like to go with Axel? Maybe I could make another deal with them… it's been a long time since I've done a deal on purpose. The last one didn't go so well.

I wondered what happened to him. Did he die? Or maybe I just ate him and I didn't remember. Sometimes I didn't remember.

With a loud click, Axel slipped out a coin out of his pocket and put it on the table with the paper. Blinking, I snapped out of my reverie. Oh. Just an ordinary five munny coin. That wasn't that fun. I pushed it with my finger, moving it a little toward the paper's row of scribbled letters.

One of the girls screamed behind me. "Did you do that, Axel?!" She demanded, stomping her foot as she stared at the paper. I watched as Axel shook his head slowly.

"Sora's there," He said instead. I beamed at him, pleased with being acknowledged but he ignored me. He finished writing the last letter and took the coin away; he put it in the middle of the paper and took out a little black thing. He slid it open and looked over at me. "If you can hear me, then answer our questions. Move the coin and we'll write down your answers."

I didn't understand this game. I didn't think I liked this game.

But Axel wanted to play with me. I reached across the table and pushed the coin across the paper.

O-K

The girls looked over at each other, the brown-haired one opening her mouth to scream again. But the other one, the one in the pink dress and the red hair, just shook her head and walked to the table. She took a seat next to mine. She pulled out a pad of paper from a bookbag and a pencil and got ready to write.

Looking at her, I thought she was pretty. Her eyes were pretty.

H-E-L-L-O

She blinked at the message she had written down before a little scared smile appeared on her mouth. "Hello, Sora," She said back quietly. She knew my name! She knew my name! What a weird thing, she knew my name! The pretty girl tucked a strand of red hair behind her ear and smiled a little more brightly. "My name's Kairi."

Kairi… that was a pretty name… It sounded… familiar… I reached for the coin again.

H-I-K-A-I-R-I

I-M-S-O-R-A

D-O-Y-O-U-L-I-K-E-T-H-I-S-G-A-M-E

Making these letters was harder than I thought. I was really slow at this game. Kairi was fast, writing down the letters faster than I could with the coin. I frowned, glaring up at her in a little annoyance. It wasn't fair if she was faster! It wasn't fair!

Kairi smiled at me, making me stop in the middle of grabbing the coin and throwing it away so that she wouldn't win. "I like this game, Sora, it lets me talk to you," She said with a little laugh.

It was sweet. Like honey. Or sugar. I didn't remember either of those. But I remembered that they were sweet. Like the girl's voice. I liked it. I looked down at her wrist and saw a ribbon tied there in a little bow. Oh. I was disappointed. I can't take her away with me. I had a question for her now.

W-H-E-R-E-D-I-D-Y-O-U-G-E-T-T-H-E-R-I-B-B-O-N

Kairi looked over at Axel in surprise but he just nodded at her, like he was telling her a secret without words. That wasn't fair! I wanted to know, too!

"I'll tell you if you answer some questions, Sora," She said instead. I scowled, slapping the paper hard. The other kids jumped at the sudden movement and the girl with black hair started to cry. Kairi shook her head defiantly. "I won't play with you unless you say yes." She demanded.

Another smile. I liked her smiles. They were almost as good as her laughs. It reminded me of something… I softened and dragged the coin.

Y-E-S

"Sora, how did you die?" Kairi said immediately.

The other kids let out noises of surprise, especially the one with the silver hair. He glared at Kairi before walking up to her, pushing a piece of paper under her nose. Oh. He was the one who got hurt. He couldn't talk. What was he doing? I tried to look over Kairi's shoulder, to look at the paper. But she crumpled it up and sighed.

"Sora, do you remember how you died?" The boy with the gold hair said next. Oh, that one was Roxas.

I guess I had to answer.

Y-E-S

"How then?" Kairi and Roxas asked in unison.

Oh. Um… how could I tell them? This would take a long time with the coin. Oh! I know!

I-C-A-N-S-H-O-W-Y-O-U

I was sure that you guys wouldn't mind. Maybe it wouldn't even be that big of a deal. Maybe…

H-O-L-D-O-U-T-Y-U-R-H-A-N-D

Moving together as one, Kairi and Roxas held out their hands. The other two, the girl with the black hair and the one with brown, cried out in unison as I took their hands. Oh. Their hands were warm. I'd forgotten. I'd forgotten a lot. Kairi flinched when my fingers wrapped around hers, Roxas shivered when my hand tightened around his.

Time to show you. I guess it's time for you to see. Let's play hide and seek inside of me!

* * *

It hurt.

Mommy… it hurt….

Who… who was… mommy…?

I didn't remember. I couldn't remember. I just kept saying the name over and over as I stumbled over the rocks. They cut my feet. I saw blood trickling out.

It was cold.

I shivered hard, pulling at my school clothes to try to cover myself better. But they didn't work. They were too small on me already. "Mommy, I need new clothes, mommy…" My voice didn't sound like mine. It was too low. Too scratchy, like someone had rubbed my throat too hard and broke it. Ow. It hurt to talk.

Aqua… where was… Aqua….

I needed to find Aqua… My friend... my... only... friend... I loved Aqua... she was my friend... I licked my lips, felt blood on my tongue. Ew. I was hurt. My hand spasmed. Oh. The bugs. They were eating me. Aqua told me that the bugs would eat me. I could feelthemmovingaroundinme, mommyhelpmehelpmehelpmemommy, _**helpme**_!

Oh. My skin started crawling around on me. I felt the bugs move around inside of my eyes. MommyHELPME! IT HURTS!

"Aqua… Aqua's gone…" I heard myself say. Blood trickled down my mouth. It hurt. I rubbed it away, felt a piece of my skin rip off with it. "Aqua and mommy are gone… Who… who else…"

I knew there was someone else. No, more than someone. It wasn't… just one… … I… oh. Now I remembered. My brother. And my sister. I had those. I couldn't remember their faces. I'd been here too long. The bugs squirmed inside of me and for a second, I felt my heart stop as one of them crawled inside. Then it moved back out.

I fell to my knees. My head smacked into the sand, into the rocks. Tears fell. Ow. Mommy. It hurt. Aqua, it hurt.

But no one came.

I was all alone.

"Mom… my…?"

There was a woman here. I could hear something. A music… oh… I started to hum along. I remembered this song! It was from the music box! Mommy's music box… she played it every night when I went to sleep. I hadn't heard it in a long time. It was the song Daddy used to sing for me, too. Mommy… Mommy's here… I stretched out my hand, reaching out for Mommy's skirt.

The skirt was black, pressed close to her body. No… not a skirt… Mommy was wearing pants today…

That… was weird… I didn't remember her wearing pants… I didn't remember anything… Ow…

"Mommy… Mommy…" I whispered up to her, crying as she walked toward me. Each step vibrated inside of me as the bugs did. I could feel their shaking as Mommy walked toward me. Oh, Mommy… I missed you… "Take me home… mommy… I'll be good… I promise… Mommy… I'll be _good_…!" I told her, sobbing that much harder as her hand touched my head. It was warm. So… warm… She bent down and picked me up.

Mommy… "Mommy… take… me… home…"

I felt her hand stroke my cheek, gently moving up my face. The bugs wiggled hard at her touch. I looked up into her eyes and noticed they were brown. Weren't… I could remember a little bit now. Mommy's eyes were blue.

"I'll be good…"

The man that I thought was my mommy leaned down and put a kiss on my forehead. The world was getting darker. Mommy, I can't see. Mommy, I can't see anymore… All I could feel was the bugs buzzing inside of me. I felt them in my stomach as the man tucked my head onto his shoulder. I felt him touch my eye.

"It's okay, Terra… It won't hurt anymore." He promised quietly. As I blinked up at him, I noticed he had these hard lines on his face. I reached up toward them, touched them. These… these were called scars… oh… it was cold… I shook harder from the fever. For a moment, I saw my mommy again.

He lifted up the knife to my eye as I stared at him. "You won't be in pain anymore, Terra." The man promised me quietly and I saw a tear come out of his eye. It slid down his cheek, down the scar, and onto my hand. "I'll take you to Aqua. We'll finally go home."

"Mommy…?"

I blinked, watching the world go gray. Mommy knew Aqua...? How'd... I couldn't remember Aqua's face anymore. Mommy... I can't remember... shouldn't I be able to remember...?

Mommy, don't go away… it's dark, mommy… Mommy, _**Ican'tsee**_…!

"It won't hurt anymore, I promise."

When I closed my eyes again, I felt the knife go in. I heard him cry one more time. I heard the name Terra again.

Mommy… silly Mommy… that's… not… my… name…


End file.
